A method providing direct access to porous three-dimensionally (3D) continuous polymer network structures and shapes by combining BCP-resol co-assembly with CO.sub.2 laser-induced transient heating. The CO2 laser source transiently heats the BCP-directed resol hybrid films to high temperatures at the beam position, inducing locally controlled resol thermopolymerization and BCP decomposition in ambient conditions. This enables shaping of BCP-directed porous resin structures with tunable 3D interconnected pores in a single process. Pore size can be varied from 10 nm to about 600 nm.

The present invention relates to a process for the purification of a fluorocarbon from a mixture comprising said fluorocarbon and hydrogen, said process comprising a stage of bringing said mixture into contact with a membrane M1 to form a stream F1 comprising the fluorocarbon and a stream F2 comprising the hydrogen. The present invention also relates to a process for the production of trifluoroethylene. The present invention also relates to a process for the separation of a hydrofluoroolefin or of a hydrofluoroalkane from nitrogen by membrane separation. The present invention also relates to a process for the separation of trifluoroethylene from chlorotrifluoroethylene or from a hydrofluorocarbon.

The present invention relates to a process for the preparation of a polyarylether copolymer (P), the polyarylether copolymer (P) obtained by the process and a process for the preparation of a membrane comprising the polyarylether copolymer (P) and the membrane itself.

The invention relates to a method for assembling a bipolar membrane, and bipolar membrane thereof. The method comprises the steps of electrospinning and centrifugal spinning and electrocentrifugal spinning a first cation exchange layer comprising a first water splitting catalyst and a first cation exchange polymer, electrospinning and centrifugal spinning and electrocentrifugal spinning a junction layer. Further, the method comprises electrospinning and centrifugal spinning and electrocentrifugal spinning a first anion exchange layer comprising a second water splitting catalyst and a first anion exchange polymer. A system comprising a bipolar membrane according to the invention is also disclosed.

A porous membrane made from a poly(phenylene ether) copolymer has at least one of: a molecular weight cut off of less than 40 kilodaltons or a surface pore size of 0.001 to 0.1 micrometers. The porous membrane is made by dissolving the poly(phenylene ether) copolymer in a water-miscible polar aprotic solvent to form a porous membrane-forming composition; and phase-inverting the porous asymmetric membrane forming-composition in a first non-solvent composition to form the porous mem-brane. The porous membrane can be in the form of a sheet or a hollow fiber, and can be fabricated into separation modules.

A porous composite membrane includes a porous support layer of a poly(phenylene ether) or poly(phenylene ether) copolymer; and an amphiphilic copolymer having a hydrophobic block and a hydrophilic block or graft, wherein the hydrophobic block includes a polystyrene block, a poly(phenylene ether) block, or a poly(phenylene ether) copolymer block; and an ultrathin, cross-linked, water permeable layer, which is the reaction product of an electrophilic monomer and a nucleophilic monomer, in contact with a side of the porous support layer. The reaction product can be a polyamide that is the interfacial condensation product of: an aromatic, polyfunctional acyl halide comprising of 3 to 6 acyl halide groups per aromatic ring and an aromatic polyamine comprising at least two primary amine groups and a maximum number of primary amine groups that is less than or equal to the number of acyl halide groups on the polyfunctional acyl halide.

A porous membrane made from a poly(phenylene ether) copolymer has at least one of: a molecular weight cut off of less than 40 kilodaltons or a surface pore size of 0.001 to 0.1 micrometers. The porous membrane is made by dissolving the poly(phenylene ether) copolymer in a water-miscible polar aprotic solvent to form a porous membrane-forming composition; and phase-inverting the porous asymmetric membrane forming-composition in a first non-solvent composition to form the porous membrane. The porous membrane can be in the form of a sheet or a hollow fiber, and can be fabricated into separation modules.

A filter plate device has an inlet and an outlet where the filter plate has a polymeric framework having a filtration zone and a membrane bed of one or more membranes bonded and sealed to the polymeric framework in said filtration zone with a thermosetting plastic, where a flow distributor is placed within the membrane bed such that fluid flows evenly through the membrane bed.

A composite membrane comprising a supporting membrane that includes polyphenylene oxide and a separation layer that is disposed on one main surface of the supporting membrane, wherein the polyphenylene oxide is sulfonated on the one main surface of the supporting membrane and the separation layer includes polyvinyl alcohol having an ionic functional group.

A method for sulfonation of poly(phenylene ether) can comprise: dissolving a poly(phenylene ether) comprising 2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene ether units, 2,3,6-trimethyl-1,4-phenylene ether units, 3,3,5,5-tetramethyl-4,4-dihydroxybiphenyl ether units, or a combination thereof in a mixture of 1,2-dichloroethane and a cosolvent to form a solvent mixture in a mixing vessel, wherein the cosolvent comprises at least one of methyl ethyl ketone, diethyl ether, methyl ethyl sulfone, ethyl acetate, or tetramethylene sulfone; combining a sulfonating agent with the solvent mixture, wherein the sulfonating agent reacts with the poly(phenylene ether) to form sulfonated poly(phenylene ether); precipitating the sulfonated poly(phenylene ether); and filtering the precipitated sulfonated poly(phenylene ether) to form a sulfonated poly(phenylene ether) precipitate and a filtrate; wherein the sulfonated poly(phenylene ether) has a sulfonation level of 20 to 50%.