Polymer films having a surface with increased hydrophobicity or enhanced hydrophobicity or improved hydrophobicity or super-hydrophobicity; composite structures such as multilayer polymer sheets comprising the polymer films; methods and systems of making such polymer films; polymer blends from which to make such polymer films; masterbatches or masterbatch compositions useful for making such polymer blends; as well as methods and systems for making such polymer blends and such masterbatches or masterbatch compositions.

The present invention provides a porous membrane for water treatment, comprising: a high molecular weight polyethylene, a water-soluble polymer and an antioxidant, the high molecular weight polyethylene having an average molecular weight of 1.0×10.sup.5 to 10.0×10.sup.6 and a density of 0.940 to 0.976 g/cm.sup.3; wherein, the weight of the water-soluble polymer is 5 to 50 parts, the weight of the antioxidant is 0.1 to 10 parts, based on 100 parts of the weight of the high molecular weight polyethylene. The porous membrane for water treatment prepared by the present invention has a thickness of 5 to 30 μm, a pore size of 10 to 100 nm, a porosity of 20 to 60%, and a surface contact angle of 30° to 95°. The porous membrane according to the present invention has good durability, simple preparation process, and relatively thin thickness, a uniform pore size distribution and small pore size, good hydrophilicity, as well as good filtration and adsorption effect.

The present invention provides an intrinsically anti-microbial hollow fiber membrane for filtration of liquids. The membrane comprises a plurality of porous hollow bilayer membrane fibers wherein the liquid enters from outside of the fiber, passing through the porous membrane into the lumen of the fiber and coming out from the hollow ending of the fiber, wherein this configuration provides a liquid outside-in arrangement and retains the filtrate outside. It means that membrane of the invention has built in characteristics to act against microbes in order to provide the use with a safe liquid free from microbes. The outer side or outer wall of the hollow fibers may be configured to become hydrophobic whereas inner side or inner wall of the hollow fiber membrane may be configured to become hydrophilic to enhance the water permeability to a great extent. The hollow fiber membrane may be configured to give it an intrinsic anti-microbial capability. A device containing above said membrane has also been disclosed.

The purpose of the present invention is to provide: a separation film that consists primarily of a cellulose ester and has a high membrane strength and a high elongation degree; and a production method therefor. Provided is a separation film which has a structure comprising a cellulose ester phase and pores, wherein the average pore diameter R is 0.001-6 μm, the value obtained from the expression: breaking strength (MPa)÷(100−porosity (%))×100 is 40 or greater, and the elongation degree is 10% or greater.

A method is described for forming a body having at least one through-going passage, said method has the steps of: a) providing a mixture comprising particles and at least one liquid pocket inside a curable matrix, b) subjecting said mixture to a first alternating voltage having a first frequency to form a body in which said at least one liquid pocket extends from a first surface of said body to a second surface of said body thereby forming at least one through-going passage lacking curable matrix, and c) curing said curable matrix into a cured matrix, wherein at least some of said particles are located at an interface between said at least one through-going passage comprising liquid and said cured matrix.

Provided is a method including the steps of producing a melt-kneaded product and discharging the melt-kneaded product. In the step of producing a melt-kneaded product, a thermoplastic resin, a non-solvent and an inorganic compound are mixed and melt-kneaded, wherein the non-solvent does not uniformly dissolve the thermoplastic resin of one-quarter mass at a boiling point or 250° C., whichever is lower.

The present invention deals with a method for obtaining membranes in the form of hollow fibers with application in the field of carbon dioxide removal from natural gas. The aforementioned membranes are obtained by means of heat treatment of polymeric membranes. In this method, polymeric membranes are obtained by a phase-inversion technique by immersion-precipitation and are subsequently subjected to a heat treatment, that is, that the membranes effectively become precursor membranes of the heat treatment. The heat treatment process involves the optimization of the heating rate, temperature, and stabilization time variables, aiming at the improvement of the transport properties of the polymeric membranes. After the heat treatment, it becomes possible to use the membranes in separation processes of gases which operate at pressures greater than 30 bar, with selectivity for carbon dioxide (CO.sub.2).

The disclosed technology relates to flat sheet porous membranes prepared from a dope solution containing a polymer of vinyl chloride, such as chlorinated polyvinyl chloride.

Zeolite membrane sheets for separation of mixtures containing water are provided, as well as methods for making the same. Thin, but robust, zeolite membrane sheets having an inter-grown zeolite crystal film directly on a thin, less than 200 micron thick, porous support sheet free of any surface pores with a size above 10 microns. The zeolite membrane film thickness is less than about 10 microns above the support surface and less than about 5 microns below the support surface. Methods of preparing the membrane are disclosed which include coating of the support sheet surface with a seed coating solution containing the parent zeolite crystals with mean particle sizes from about 0.5 to 2.0 microns at loading of 0.05-0.5 mg/cm2 and subsequent growth of the seeded sheet in a growth reactor loaded with a growth solution over a temperature range of about 45 C. to about 120 C.

Disclosed is a polyvinylidene fluoride/ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene blend microporous membrane and preparation method thereof, which belongs to the field of microporous membrane. The blend microporous membrane has good hydrophobicity, mechanical properties and permeability. The preparation method includes: preparing a suspension by polyvinylidene fluoride, ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene, antioxidant and diluent; then feeding the obtained suspension into a twin-screw extruder, and the cast membrane gel extruded from the outlet is directly injected into a metal mold for injection molding; the mold temperature and the outlet temperature of the extruder are the same, and the cavity surface of the mold has micro-prism array structure; then cooling the mold in aqueous medium to obtain a nascent gel membrane; drying the obtained nascent gel membrane in a freeze dryer after removal of the diluents by extraction. The prepared membrane can be used in the membrane separation technology such as membrane distillation.