The present invention relates to a self-humidifying ion-exchange composite membrane including an aromatic hydrocarbon polymer ion-exchange membrane formed on the surface of a porous polymer support and a thin hydrophobic coating layer having a nanocracked morphology pattern on the surface of the ion-exchange membrane. The self-humidifying ion-exchange composite membrane of the present invention has good thermal/chemical stability, high mechanical strength, high ion-exchange capacity, and good long-term operational stability. Particularly, the self-humidifying ion-exchange composite membrane of the present invention is able to self-hydrate even under high-temperature and low-humidity conditions. Due to these advantages, it is expected that the self-humidifying ion-exchange composite membrane of the present invention will be commercialized as an electrolyte membrane for a fuel cell or a membrane for water treatment.

To provide a prepreg excellent in storage stability and capable of obtaining a fiber-reinforced molded product excellent in impact resistance, and a method for its production, as well as a fiber-reinforced molded product excellent in impact resistance. The prepreg comprises reinforcing fibers and a matrix resin, wherein the matrix resin comprises a thermoplastic resin (but excluding the following fluororesin) and a melt-formable fluororesin having a melting point of from 100 to 325 C. and having functional groups of at least one type selected from the group consisting of carbonyl group-containing groups, hydroxy groups, epoxy groups and isocyanate groups, and in 100 mass % of the total of the thermoplastic resin and the fluororesin, the proportion of the thermoplastic resin is from more than 30 to 99 mass % and the proportion of the fluororesin is from 1 to less than 70 mass %.

The present invention relates to a method for preparing nanoporous polysulfone-based polymers, including: a copolymer of a polysulfone polymer and a polar polymer is immersed into a compound swelling agent, and maintained for at least 1 minute above room temperature; the compound swelling agent is a solvent pair composed of the mixture of solvent A and solvent B; the solvent A has high affinity with the polysulfone polymer; and the solvent B has high affinity with the polar polymer; the treated copolymer is taken out from the compound swelling agent and then dried to remove the solvent to obtain the nanoporous polysulfone-based polymers.

A low cost, high selectivity asymmetric polyimide/polyethersulfone (PES) blend hollow fiber membrane, a method of making the membrane and its use for a variety of liquid, gas, and vapor separations such as deep desulfurization of gasoline and diesel fuels, ethanol/water separations, pervaporation dehydration of aqueous/organic mixtures, CO.sub.2/CH.sub.4, CO.sub.2/N.sub.2, H.sub.2/CH.sub.4, He/CH.sub.4, O.sub.2/N.sub.2, H.sub.2S/CH.sub.4, olefin/paraffin, iso/normal paraffins separations, and other light gas mixture separations. The polyimide/PES blend hollow fiber membrane is fabricated from a blend of a polyimide polymer and PES and showed surprisingly unique gas separation property with higher selectivities than either the polyimide hollow fiber membrane without PES polymer or the PES hollow fiber membrane without PES polymer for gas separations such as for H.sub.2/CH.sub.4, He/CH.sub.4, H.sub.2S/CH.sub.4, CO.sub.2/CH.sub.4 separations.

Disclosed is a porous hollow fiber membrane containing a polysulfone-based polymer as a main component, which has an asymmetric structure in which the inner surface side is dense and the outer surface side is coarse, wherein an average of a minor axis diameter of pores of an inner surface is 20 nm or more and 40 nm or less, an open porosity of the inner surface is 10% or more and 30% or less, and a polymer including a monocarboxylic acid vinyl ester unit is supported on at least one of the outer surface and the inner surface. The present invention provides a hollow fiber membrane which has excellent removing performance of substances to be separated such as viruses, and can be used as a separation membrane having high permeability even in a treatment under low pressure.

A porous membrane includes a polymer which includes one or more structural units selected from the group consisting of a structural unit represented by Formula (I) and a structural unit represented by Formula (II), in which a content of the structural unit represented by Formula (II) is 1% by mass or more and less than 10% by mass with respect to a total mass of the structural unit represented by Formula (I) and the structural unit represented by Formula (II)

##STR00001##

A thermoplastic aromatic polysulfone is obtained by polymerizing a dihalogeno compound (A) and a dihydric phenol (B). The ratio (Mw/Mn) between a number average molecular weight (Mn) and a weight average molecular weight (Mw) is at least 1.91, and the number average molecular weight (Mn) is at least 6,000 and less than 14,000, ##STR00001##
In (A) and (B), each of X and X independently represents a halogen atom; each of R.sup.1, R.sup.2, R.sup.3 and R.sup.4 independently represents an alkyl group having 1 to 4 carbon atoms or an alkoxy group having 1 to 4 carbon atoms; each of n.sub.1, n.sub.2, n.sub.3 and n.sub.4 independently represents an integer of 0 to 4; and when n.sub.1, n.sub.2, n.sub.3 or n.sub.4 is an integer of 2 to 4, a plurality of R.sup.1, R.sup.2, R.sup.3 or R.sup.4 groups may be the same or different from each other.

Provided is composite carbon fibers in which polymers having an amino containing group are covalently bonded to the surface of the carbon fiber. Aspects are also directed to processes for preparing the composite carbon fibers. Additional aspects are directed to reinforced composites comprising a resin matrix and the composite carbon fibers, and to processes of making such reinforced composites.

A bipolar membrane BP characterized in that particles 5 of a basic metal chloride are distributed in the interface between a cation-exchange membrane 1 and an anion-exchange membrane 3.

The present invention relates to a process for preparing a polyaryl ether by reacting components (a1) and (a2) in the presence of a carbonate compound (C) to obtain a salt-containing polymer (SP) comprising the polyaryl ether and a salt (S). After the reaction, the salt (S) is extracted from the salt-containing polymer (SP) to obtain a desalinated polymer (DP) comprising the polyaryl ether.