A forward osmosis membrane characterized in that a thin membrane layer having the performance of a semi-permeable membrane is laminated on a polyketone support layer.

A method for producing an asymmetric porous membrane includes: forming a first casting film from a casting solution on a carrier, the casting solution containing a hydrophobic polymer, a hydrophilic polymer, a water-soluble polymer, and a solvent; placing the first casting film in an environment containing water vapor to contact the first casting layer with the water vapor, thereby obtaining a second casting film, the environment having a temperature ranging from 20 C. to 33 C. and a relative humidity of 30% to 80%; and contacting the second casting film with a coagulating agent so as to perform a wet-phase inversion. The hydrophilic polymer is polyvinylpyrrolidone, polyalkylene glycol, or a combination thereof. The water-soluble polymer is a copolymer of vinylpyrrolidone and vinyl acetate, a copolymer of vinylpyrrolidone and alkylene glycol, a vinyl alcohol-based polymer, an ethylene glycol/propylene glycol based copolymer, an ethyleneimine-based polymer, a water-soluble cellulose, or combinations thereof.

The invention provides a high permeance and high selectivity facilitated transport membrane comprising a very small pore, nanoporous polyethersulfone (PES)/polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) blend support membrane, a hydrophilic polymer inside the very small nanopores on the skin layer surface of the support membrane, a thin, nonporous, hydrophilic polymer layer coated on the surface of the support membrane, and metal salts incorporated in the hydrophilic polymer layer coated on the surface of the support membrane and the hydrophilic polymer inside the very small nanopores, a method of making this membrane, and the use of this membrane for olefin/paraffin separations, particularly for propylene/propane and ethylene/ethane separations.

Copolymer C comprising polyarylene ether blocks A and polyalkylene oxide blocks PAO, wherein said polyarylene ether blocks A are blocks of at least one partially sulfonated polyarylene ether.

The present application may provide a block copolymer and a use thereof. The present application may provide a block copolymer and a use thereof. The block copolymer of the present application may have excellent self-assembly properties or phase separation characteristics and simultaneously have characteristics capable of changing the self-assembly structure formed once, or provide a block copolymer capable of forming a pattern of phase separation structures in a polymer membrane.

An anion-conducting polymeric membrane comprises vinylbenzyl-R.sub.s vinylbenzyl-R.sub.x and styrene-R.sub.t. R.sub.s is a positively charged amine or phosphine group. The total weight of the vinylbenzyl-R.sub.s groups is greater than 15% of the total weight of the membrane.

Reverse osmosis (RO) separation of organic solvent mixtures where solvent molecular weights <100 Da is challenging especially for powerful solvents that swell most uncrosslinked polymers. To avoid polymer swelling by solvents, a particular perfluoropolymer, perfluoro-2,2-dimethyl-1,3-dioxole copolymerized with tetrafluoroethylene, (PDD-TFE), designated CMS-7, was studied. This amorphous glassy extremely hydrophobic copolymer has a very high free volume (FV) fraction. The maximum radial dimension of FV regions is less than 0.65 nm allowing only single solvent molecule permeation. Further, interactions between polarity, dimensions and shapes of solvent molecules with those of polymer FV elements can lead to extraordinarily selective permeation. Permeation behaviors of other solvent mixtures, toluene-n-heptane, NMP-tetrahydrofuran, methanol-water, ethanol-water as well as individual phases of the immiscible mixture of NMP and the nonpolar solvent n-heptane were also studied.

Provided is a porous membrane that can be manufactured in uncomplicated steps, has high hydrophilicity and water permeability, and exhibits excellent anti-fouling properties when used in a membrane bioreactor method (MBR method). The porous membrane of the present invention is a porous membrane containing polymer (A) and polymer (B), wherein the polymer (A) is a membrane-forming polymer, the polymer (B) is a polymer having a unit (b1) represented by formula (1) and a unit (b2) based on hydroxyl group-containing (meth)acrylate, and the concentration (mass %) of the unit (b1) is equal to or higher than the concentration (mass %) of the unit (b2) in the porous membrane.

##STR00001##

The present invention relates to a thin film composite forward osmosis membrane with a polyethylene porous support, and a thin film composite forward osmosis membrane which is low cost, has excellent durability and chemical resistance, and outstanding performance (water flux and specific salt flux) may be provided in the present invention.

The present invention relates to a thin film composite forward osmosis membrane with a polyethylene porous support, and a thin film composite forward osmosis membrane which is low cost, has excellent durability and chemical resistance, and outstanding performance (water flux and specific salt flux) may be provided in the present invention.