Described herein is a crosslinked graphene and biopolymer (e.g. lignin) based composite membrane that provides selective resistance for solutes while providing water permeability. The membrane may include optional additional functional additives in a crosslinked material matrix that provides enhanced salt separation from water. Methods for making such membranes, and methods of using the membranes for dehydrating or removing solutes from water are also described.

The invention relates to a membrane, and method of manufacture of a membrane for reverse osmosis having a porous substrate, and a layer adjacent the porous substrate comprising a two dimensional nanosheet material and crosslinked polymer. The two dimensional nanosheet material is preferably chosen from the group comprising graphene oxide including reduced graphene oxide, holey graphene, holey graphene oxide, laminated graphene oxide and holey reduced graphene oxide.

The present invention discloses a nanocomposite membrane for heavy metal rejection and a preparation method thereof. The nanocomposite membrane comprises a porous membrane prepared from a two-dimensional sheet material and a hydrophilic inorganic nanomaterial distributed between the sheets of the two-dimensional material. The effective pore size of the nanocomposite membrane under wet conditions is not greater than 1.2 nm. The static water contact angle of the nanocomposite membrane is not greater than 45. The preparation method of the nanocomposite membrane comprises: adding reactants on both sides of a nanoporous membrane to carry out an interfacial synthesis reaction to obtain the nanocomposite membrane. The method is simple and controllable. Driven by lower pressure, heavy metal ions in water are rejected by a pore size screening function, thereby achieving the purpose of deep removal. The nanocomposite membrane can be used to quickly remove heavy metal ions from water.

The present invention is directed to nanofiltration (NF) composite membranes comprising at least one polymeric porous substrate layer (S) and at least one porous selfassembled supramolecular membrane layer (F); a method of preparing such composite membranes; method of separation/filtration/purification of heavy metal cations, inorganic anions, and organic small molecules by applying such composite membranes; as well as filter cartridges and filtration devices comprising said composite membranes.

The disclosure describes a method of forming highly ordered membrane protein crystals. The forming process is done in the presence of a magnetic field to exploit the diamagnetic anisotropy of the membrane protein. Further described is a method of magnetic alignment and crystallization of membrane proteins in two-dimensional (2D) sheets for protein structural characterization and applications in functional devices. Block co-copolymers are used in alternative embodiments to assist with the crystallization process.

The invention relates to a process for manufacturing a laminated material (S) comprising a fibrillated cellulose layer, characterized in that it comprises the following steps: (a) depositing a suspension (1) of fibrillated cellulose on a filtration membrane (2) and draining the suspension through that membrane so as to form a wet layer of fibrillated cellulose (A) having a dryness, that is to say a ratio between the mass of dry matter and the total mass of the fibrillated cellulose layer, of between 5% and 18%; (b) transferring the wet layer (A) under pressure to an at least partially hydrophilic surface of a substrate (B), so as to form the laminated material (S); (c) drying the laminated material. The invention also relates to a device for implementing the process.

There is provided a graphene-based membrane where the mechanical properties, thermal conductivity, electrical conductivity, and/or three-dimensional curvature of the membrane have been tuned according to the desired application of the membrane. Methods of accelerating the vacuum-assisted self-assembly (VASA) process for graphene-based membranes and methods for accelerating the process of removing liquid from a graphene-based dispersion are also provided. The method can include two steps of reduction to both minimize the filtration time and to substantially restore the electrical and thermal properties of a graphene-based membrane at low temperature.

Methods are provided for growing a thin film of a nanoscale material. Thin films of nanoscale materials are also provided. The films can be grown with microscale patterning. The method can include vacuum filtration of a solution containing the nanostructured material through a porous substrate. The porous substrate can have a pore size that is comparable to the size of the nanoscale material. By patterning the pores on the surface of the substrate, a film can be grown having the pattern on a surface of the thin film, including on the top surface opposite the substrate. The nanoscale material can be graphene, graphene oxide, reduced graphene oxide, molybdenum disulfide, hexagonal membrane boron nitride, tungsten diselenide, molybdenum trioxide, or clays such as montmorillonite or lapnotie. The porous strate can be a porous organic or inorganic membrane, a silicon stencil membrane, or similar membrane having pore sizes on the order of microns.

A method for producing a dialysis membrane in hollow-fiber membrane or flat membrane geometry includes: a) making a casting or spinning solution for production of a base membrane for the dialysis membrane out of at least one polysulfone and at least one pore-forming hydrophilic additive in at least one organic solvent, b) bringing the casting or spinning solution into contact with a precipitating agent to form the base membrane, and c) rinsing out the at least one organic solvent after precipitation of the casting or spinning solution in flat or hollow-fiber form.

Described herein is a crosslinked graphene and biopolymer (e.g. lignin) based composite membrane that provides selective resistance for solutes while providing water permeability. The membrane may include optional additional functional additives in a crosslinked material matrix that provides enhanced salt separation from water. Methods for making such membranes, and methods of using the membranes for dehydrating or removing solutes from water are also described.