An osmotic power generator comprising an active membrane supported in a housing, at least a first chamber portion disposed on a first side of the active membrane for receiving a first electrolyte liquid and a second chamber portion disposed on a second side of the active membrane for receiving a second electrolyte liquid, a generator circuit comprising at least a first electrode electrically coupled to said first chamber, and at least a second electrode electrically coupled to said second chamber, the first and second electrodes configured to be connected together through a generator load receiving electrical power generated by a difference in potential and an ionic current between the first and second electrodes. The active membrane includes at least one pore allowing ions to pass between the first and second sides of the membrane under osmosis due to an osmotic gradient between the first and second electrolyte liquids to generate said difference in potential and ionic current between the first and second electrodes.

The problem addressed by the present invention is to provide a separation membrane with superior permeation performance and separation performance and having few occurrences of defects. The present invention relates to a separation membrane wherein: the separation membrane has a layer (I) with a thickness of 0.5-100 m; letting, in a cross-section in the direction of thickness of the layer (I), region a be a region with a depth of 50-150 nm from a surface (surface A), region b a region with a depth of 50-150 nm from the other surface (surface B), and region c a region with a thickness of 100 nm where the depth from both surfaces is the same, the average pore diameter Pa for region a and the average pore diameter Pb for region b are both 0.3-3.0 nm and the average pore diameter Pc for region c is 3.0 nm or less; and the percentage of open area Ha for region a, the percentage of open area Hb for region b, and the percentage of open area Hc for region c satisfy the following equations. 2Hc<Ha 2Hc<Hb

Provided is an internal pressure adjustment member to be attached to an outer surface of a housing, the member having high air permeability even when a differential pressure that can be generated between the inside and the outside of a housing to which the internal pressure adjustment member is attached is small, and inhibiting damage to the member and a reduction in the air permeability of the member due to coming soil and mud. The internal pressure adjustment member includes: a filter portion including a net-like or mesh-like support layer and first and second porous polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) membranes laminated on the support layer such that the support layer is interposed therebetween, the first porous PTFE membrane being exposed on one surface of the filter portion, the second porous PTFE membrane being exposed on another surface of the filter portion; and an adhesive portion, formed on the one surface of the filter portion, for attaching the filter portion to the outer surface of the housing. The first porous PTFE membrane and the second porous PTFE membrane each have an average pore diameter of 2.0 m or more, the filter portion has a thickness of 140 m or less, and the filter portion has a density of 0.60 g/cm.sup.3 or less.

Continuous permeable graphene films having 2 or more layers of graphene and wherein nanochannels or nanopores extend through said film. Each nanochannel is comprised of a fluidly connected series of gaps between edge mismatches of adjacent graphene grains within said 2 or more layer adjacent sheets, said nanochannels providing a fluid passage from one face of the permeable graphene film to the other. Also, membranes including a permeable support membrane overlaid by a continuous permeable graphene film and processes for the preparation of said membranes. Also the use of said membranes in water purification and desalination, for example.

The present invention provides a preparation method for a composite porous structure, comprising the following steps: step (a): preparing a porous substrate having multiple pores, a first surface and a second surface; and step (b): continuously feeding a cooling fluid to contact the first surface and to flow continuously to the second surface through the pores of the porous substrate, and heating a coating material to multiple molten particles by a heat source and spraying the molten particles onto the second surface of the porous substrate, so as to form a coating layer having multiple micropores on the second surface of the porous substrate and obtain the composite porous structure formed. Besides, also provided is a composite porous structure prepared by the preparation method.

Provided is a nanofiltration (NF) or reverse osmosis (RO) membrane made of a hard carbon film that has oil resistance and can efficiently separate not only ions in water but also dye molecules present in an organic solvent, a filtering filter, a two-layer-bonded-type filtering filter, and methods for manufacturing the same, using a nanofiltration (NF) or reverse osmosis (RO) membrane (10) made of a hard carbon film characterized by being made of a hard carbon film, having a thickness (t.sub.10) of from 5 nm to 300 nm, and having a maximum pore diameter of less than 0.86 nm.

Compositions and methods are described for self-assembled polymer materials having at least one of macro, meso, or micro pores.

A method for preparing a nanoporous silica sol-gel matrix containing at least one amine reactant selected from hydroxylamine, methylhydroxylamine, tertbutylhydroxylamine, methoxyamine, tetraethylenepentamine, dicarboxylic acid dihydrazides, particularly adipic acid dihydrazide, and the salts thereof, said method including the following steps: a) synthesising a gel from tetramethoxysilane or from a mixture of tetramethoxysilane and another organosilicon precursor selected from among phenyltrimethoxysilane, phenyltriethoxysilane, a fluoroalkyltrimethoxysilane, a fluoroalkyltriethoxysilane, a chloroalkylmethoxysilane, a chloroalkylethoxysilane, an alkyltrimethoxysilane, an alkyltriethoxysilane, an aminopropyltriethoxysilane and the mixtures thereof, the synthesis being performed in an aqueous medium at a temperature ranging from 10 to 70 C. in the presence of at least one amine reactant selected from among hydroxylamine, methylhydroxylamine, tertbutylhydroxylamine, methoxyamine, dicarboxylic acid dihydrazides, particularly adipic acid dihydrazide, and the salts thereof; b) drying the gel obtained during step a) so as to obtain a sol-gel matrix containing at least one amine reactant.

The present disclosure describes a process for separating at least a first gas component and a second gas component by contacting a gas stream comprising the first and second gas components with a carbon molecular sieve (CMS) membrane under aggressive gas separation conditions in which the partial pressure of the selectively sorbed gas component in the gas stream is high. Despite the high partial pressure of the sorbed gas component, the selectivity of the carbon molecular sieve membrane is not substantially reduced by plasticization or saturation. In some embodiments, the aggressive gas separation process may include contacting a gas stream at supercritical conditions with a CMS membrane to separate at least first and second gas components. The process may be useful for, among other things, the separation of CO.sub.2 from a natural gas stream.

A hybrid type filtration structure for filtering liquid includes a first active layer, a porous supporting layer and a permeable layer. The first active layer has a first nano pore inner wall of which a function group included compound is combined with. The porous supporting layer has a plurality of pores and is disposed under the first active layer. The permeable layer is disposed under the porous supporting layer. The porous supporting layer includes a plurality of lipid bilayers having membrane protein inside of the pore, a molecule of water selectively passes through the membrane protein. The first nano pore passes through the first active layer vertically. The first nano pore and the pore are connected with each other through which liquid flows.