A membrane for separating organic solvents such as methanol and toluene is provided. A plurality methacrylate polymer brushes, e.g., composed of hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) monomers or aminoethyl methacrylate (AEMA) monomers, are grafted from a crosslinked polyimide support using Single Electron Transfer-Living Radical Polymerization (SET-LRP). The polymer brushes themselves are also crosslinked by ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA), triethylene glycol dimethacryalte (TEGDMA) trimesic acid, and/or itaconic acid. These hydrophilic polymeric brush membranes demonstrate pore stiffening and yet also opening, obtaining high selectivity at reasonable permeability and reduced energy requirements for commercially relevant separations, e.g., methanol/toluene. The addition of the crosslinker prevents loss of selectivity as a result of imparting increased rigidity, enabling the membranes to be operated at higher operating pressures for increased throughput. These membranes would be beneficial for use in pharmaceutical, chemical, petroleum, food, and biotechnology industries, e.g., in the manufacture of polymethacrylic acid, the manufacture of paraxylene, etc.

The present invention relates to the development and fabrication of thin-film polymer composite materials containing vertically aligned nanopores. The present invention provides methods of aligning nanopores in a polymeric film. The present invention also provides composite materials and methods of fabricating composite materials containing vertically aligned nanopores.

Provided herein are copolymers and copolymer compositions that are both hydrophilic and oleophobic. The copolymers include structural units derived from a fluoroalkyl monomer and a zwitterionic monomer. It further relates to membranes formed by coating a porous substrate with the copolymeric compositions. The copolymeric coating imparts hydrophilicity and oleophobicity/oil-tolerance to the membranes. The uses of such membranes as microfiltration membrane or ultrafiltration membrane are also provided.

A method for making a nanoporous membrane is disclosed. The method provides a composite film comprising an atomically thin material layer and a polymer layer, and then bombarding the composite film with energetic particles to form a plurality of pores through at least the atomically thin material layer. The nanoporous membrane also has a atomically thin material layer with a plurality of apertures therethrough and a polymer film layer adjacent one side of the graphene layer. The polymer film layer has a plurality of enlarged pores therethrough, which are aligned with the plurality of apertures. All of the enlarged pores may be concentrically aligned with all the apertures. In one embodiment the atomically thin material layer is graphene.

A method for preparing an ionically-charged membrane comprising the steps (1) applying a film of curable composition to a support; (2) curing the film of curable composition to give anionically-charged membrane; and (3) removing the ionically-charged membrane from the support; wherein the curable composition comprises a) 5 to 50 wt % of curable compound comprising one ethylenically unsaturated group and anionic group; b) 10 to 70 wt % of crosslinking agent comprising at least two ethylenically unsaturated groups and having a molecular weight of at least 500 dalton per ethylenically unsaturated group; and c) 5 to 60 wt % of inert solvent.

A separation membrane includes a membrane comprising a polymer, characterized in that a functional layer is formed on the surface in one side of the membrane, the peak area percentage of carbon derived from ester group measured by the electron spectroscopy for chemical analysis (ESCA) on the surface of the preceding functional layer is 0.1% (by atomic number) or more but not more than 10 (% by atomic number), and the peak area percentage of carbon derived from ester group measured by the electron spectroscopy for chemical analysis (ESCA) on the surface opposite to the functional layer is not more than 10 (% by atomic number). A separation membrane module suffering from little sticking of organic matters, proteins, platelets and so on is provided with the separation membrane as a built-in membrane.

A separation membrane includes a membrane comprising a polymer, characterized in that a functional layer is formed on the surface in one side of the membrane, the peak area percentage of carbon derived from ester group measured by the electron spectroscopy for chemical analysis (ESCA) on the surface of the preceding functional layer is 0.1% (by atomic number) or more but not more than 10 (% by atomic number), and the peak area percentage of carbon derived from ester group measured by the electron spectroscopy for chemical analysis (ESCA) on the surface opposite to the functional layer is not more than 10 (% by atomic number). A separation membrane module suffering from little sticking of organic matters, proteins, platelets and so on is provided with the separation membrane as a built-in membrane.

A composition comprising: a) 5 to 65 wt % of curable compound comprising one ethylenically unsaturated group and at least one anionic group; b) 2.5 to 70 wt % of crosslinking agent comprising at least two acrylic groups; c) a tertiary amine; and d) 0 to 45 wt % of inert solvent; wherein the molar ratio of component c) to a) is at least 0.7. Also described are a process for making composite membranes and the resultant membranes.

The problem is to provide a porous membrane with a reduced phenomenon in which membranes firmly adhere to one another during production of the porous membrane (membrane adhesion). The problem is solved by a porous membrane comprising a hydrophobic polymer and a hydrophilic polymer, wherein an average value T of ratios of the number of counts of ions derived from the hydrophilic polymer to the number of counts of ions derived from the hydrophobic polymer is 1.0 or more when a surface of the porous membrane is measured by time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS).

The invention features a spiral wound membrane filter including an outer shell, the outer shell including a reinforcement material and an acrylate adhesive composition including a multifunctional (meth)acrylate, wherein the adhesive composition has a viscosity of no greater than 10,000 cP when measured at 23 C. according to ASTM D1084 Test Method B.