Disclosed are methods for coupling a ligand to a composite material. Covalent bonds are formed between functionalized composite materials and ligands as a ligand solution flows through or across the composite materials. The composite materials are useful as chromatographic separation media.

A serial filtration system for liquid purification includes a preliminary-stage reverse-osmosis (RO) module and a first-stage, high-permeability, reverse-osmosis (HiRO) module. Both modules include (a) a chamber including an inlet, a retentate outlet, and a permeate outlet, and (b) at least one membrane separating the chamber into a retentate side on an upstream side of the membrane and a permeate side on a downstream side of the membrane. The membrane in the preliminary stage is an RO membrane, while the membrane in the first stage is an oxidized membrane. The first-stage inlet is in fluid communication with the preliminary-stage, retentate outlet; and the oxidized membrane in the first stage, comprises an oxidized polyamide active layer coated on a porous support, wherein the oxidized polyamide active layer has an atomic oxygen/nitrogen ratio of at least 1.5.

The present disclosure is related to a polymeric membrane, comprising a modified surface obtained from coating with hydrophilic monomers and curing the hydrophilic monomers with actinic irradiation, preferably UV light, wherein the hydrophilic monomers comprise at least one amino moiety; at least one polyoxyalkylene unit; and at least one (meth)acrylate moiety.

A nanoporous polymer membrane with vertically aligned pore channels can be synthesized through self-assembly of amphiphilic block copolymers on a supporting substrate. The pore surface chemistry can be functionalized for selective anion transport.

Composite materials for removing hydrophobic components from a fluid include a porous matrix polymer, carbon nanotubes grafted to surfaces of the porous matrix polymer, and polystyrene chains grafted to the carbon nanotubes. Examples of porous matrix polymer include polyurethanes, polyethylenes, and polypropylenes. Membranes of the composite material may be enclosed within a fluid-permeable pouch to form a fluid treatment apparatus, such that by contacting the apparatus with a fluid mixture containing water and a hydrophobic component, the hydrophobic component absorbs selectively into the membrane. The apparatus may be removed from the fluid mixture and reused after the hydrophobic component is expelled from the membrane. The composite material may be prepared by grafting functionalized carbon nanotubes to a porous matrix polymer to form a polymer-nanotube composite, then polymerizing styrene onto the carbon nanotubes of the polymer-nanotube composite.

A polymerizable composition for forming an ion-exchange resin precursor, the polymerizable composition containing a monomer component and polyethylene particles in an amount of 50 to 120 parts by mass per 100 parts by mass of the monomer component, wherein the monomer component contains an aromatic monomer for introducing ion-exchange groups and a nitrogen-containing aliphatic monomer, the nitrogen-containing aliphatic monomer being present in an amount of 10 to 35% by mass in said monomer component. An ion-exchange membrane is produced by applying the polymerizable composition onto a polyolefin type filament base material and polymerizing the polymerizable composition to form an ion-exchange resin precursor and, thereafter, introducing ion-exchange groups into the precursor.

A hybrid crosslinked polymeric membrane and a process for fabricating the same are provided. Specifically, the hybrid crosslinked polymer membrane comprises a glassy polymer and a ladder-structured polysilsesquioxane and has a crosslinked structure. The hybrid crosslinked polymer membrane can have an excellent permeability of carbon dioxide by virtue of an increase in the free volume and enhanced plasticization resistance, chemical resistance, and durability.

The present disclosure relates to a porous liquid or a porous liquid enzyme that includes a high surface area solid and a liquid film substantially covering the high surface area solid. The porous liquid or porous liquid enzyme may be contacted with a fluid that is immiscible with the liquid film such that a liquid-fluid interface is formed. The liquid film may facilitate mass transfer of a substance or substrate across the liquid-fluid interface. The present disclosure also provides methods of performing liquid-based extractions and enzymatic reactions utilizing the porous liquid or porous liquid enzyme of the present disclosure.

Disclosed is the preparation of composite membranes formed by a tailored selective chemical modification of an ultra-thin nanoporous surface layer of a semi-crystalline mesoporous poly (aryl ether ketone) membrane with graded density pore structure. The composite separation layer is synthesized in situ on the poly (aryl ether ketone) substrate surface and is covalently linked to the surface of the semi-crystalline mesoporous poly (aryl ether ketone) membrane. Hollow fiber configuration is the preferred embodiment of forming the functionalized the poly (aryl ether ketone) membranes. Composite poly (aryl ether ketone) membranes of the present invention are particularly useful for a broad range of fluid separation applications, including organic solvent ultrafiltration and nanofiltration to separate and recover active pharmaceutical ingredients.

A method for preparation of conductive polymer/carbon nanotube (CNT) composite nanofiltration (NF) membrane and the use thereof. This conductive polymer/CNT composite NF membrane is obtained by polymerizing conductive polymer into a CNT membrane and then in-situ cross-linking with glutaraldehyde under acidic condition. The synthetic method for the conductive polymer/CNT composite NF membrane is simple and has no need of expensive equipment. The prepared membrane has controllable membrane structure and possesses superior electrical conductivity and electrochemical stability. The membrane can couple with electrochemistry for electrically assisted filtration. With the electrical assistance, the membrane can achieve improved ion rejection performance while retaining high permeability by enhancement of membrane surface charge density, which alleviates the permeability-selectivity trade-off. Furthermore, the electrically assisted NF membrane filtration can also enhance the removal for small molecular organic pollutants.