Devices and methods for controlling molecular transport are disclosed herein. The devices include a membrane having a plurality of nanochannels extending therethrough. The membrane has an inner electrically conductive layer and an outer dielectric layer. The outer dielectric layer creates an insulative barrier between the electrically conductive layer and the contents of the nanochannels. At least one electrical contact region is positioned on a surface of the membrane. The electrical contact region exposes the electrically conductive layer of the membrane for electrical coupling to external electronics. When the membrane is at a first voltage, molecules flow through the nanochannels at a first release rate. When the membrane is at a second voltage, charge accumulation within the nanochannels modulates the flow of molecules through the nanochannels to a second release rate that is different than the first release rate. Methods of fabricating devices for controlling molecular transport are also disclosed herein.

A silica membrane filter 10 includes an ultrafiltration membrane 15, which is disposed on a support body 14 and which contains an element 14 as a primary component, and a silica membrane 18 which is disposed on the ultrafiltration membrane 15 and which has an aryl group. The ultrafiltration membrane 15 has a structure infiltrated by Si of the silica membrane 18, the atomic ratio A (=Si/M) of Si to the element M in a membrane-side region 16, which is a region corresponding to 25% of the ultrafiltration membrane 15 from the silica membrane 18, satisfies 0.01≦A≦0.5, and the ratio A/B of the atomic ratio A to the atomic ratio B (=Si/M) in a base-material-side region 17, which is a region corresponding to 25% from the support body 14, is within the range of 1.1 or more.

A composite molecular sieve membrane, preparation method and use thereof are provided in the embodiments. The composite molecular sieve membrane includes a support layer and a molecular sieve membrane layer, wherein the support layer is a high-porosity and porous ceramic which is made of nano- or submicron ceramic powder materials or ceramic material precursors prepared through an electrospinning process. The high-porosity and porous ceramic, is adjustable from 40% to 83%. The composite molecular sieve membrane of the embodiments uses the porous ceramic prepared through an electrospinning process as the support layer, and the support layer has a flat and continuous surface, high porosity, uniform and adjustable pore sizes, low-tortuosity pore channels, and high mechanical strength; the flux of the composite molecular sieve membrane is increased, besides, the seed crystals can attach effectively due to the fibrous pore channels of the support layer, ensuring the adhesion amount of seed crystals.

A film comprising a perforated layer, wherein the perforated layer is characterized by water vapor transmission rate (WVTR) of at least 300 gr/m2/day; and wherein the perforated layer is characterized by a liquid permeability of less than 0.6 gr when measured according to AATCC 35. Further, methods of manufacturing the composition of the invention are provided.

The present disclosure relates, according to some embodiments, to systems, apparatus, and methods for fluid purification (e.g., water) with a ceramic membrane. For example, the present disclosure relates, in some embodiments, to a cross-flow fluid filtration assembly comprising (a) membrane housing comprising a plurality of hexagonal prism shaped membranes (b) an inlet configured to receive the contaminated fluid and to channel a contaminated fluid to the first end of the plurality of hexagonal prism shaped membranes, and (c) an outlet configured to receive a permeate released from the second end of the plurality of hexagonal shaped membranes. The present disclosure also relates to a cross-flow fluid filtration module comprising a fluid path defined by a contaminated media inlet chamber, a fluid filtration assembly positioned in a permeate chamber and a concentrate chamber.

Disclosed herein is a ceramic membrane for water and/or wastewater treatment, the membrane comprising a ceramic substrate having at least one surface and a membrane layer comprising core-shell particles on the at least one surface, where the core and shell are formed from materials described herein. The core of the core-shell particles is formed from one or more of the group selected from Al.sub.2O.sub.3 and ZrO.sub.2, and the shell of the core-shell particles is formed from one or more of the group selected from SiO.sub.2, TiO.sub.2 and WO.sub.3. In a preferred embodiment, the core is Al.sub.2O.sub.3 and the shell is SiO.sub.2.

A polymer film has a loofah-like structure. It has a fibrous framework structure formed by three-dimensional interwoven and interconnected polymer fibers and a three-dimensional interconnected network pore structure distributed in the fibrous framework structure. The polymer is an organic polymer and the fibrous framework structure is integrally formed by the polymer. The film has a volume porosity of from 50% to 95%. The film is obtained by means of a combination method for atomization pretreatment and non-solvent phase separation. The film can be used in the fields of gas filtration, liquid filtration, oil-water separation, adsorption materials, catalysis, pharmaceutical sustained release materials, anti-adhesion coatings, oil delivery and oil spill interception.

The invention discloses a forward osmosis (FO) membrane containing silica nanoparticles having high permeate water flux and its manufacturing method. The FO membrane containing a plurality of silica nanoparticles comprises a substrate layer made of polysulfone and a polyamide layer disposed on the substrate layer. In the course of manufacturing the polyamide layer on the substrate layer by interfacial polymerization, the plurality of silica nanoparticles with different properties is added into the polyamide layer to obtain the FO membrane containing silica nanoparticles having high permeability and solute selectivity.

A membrane modification method for improving liquid membrane separation of carbon dioxide (CO.sub.2) includes grafting an organic substance containing an amine group on a porous membrane material, and loading water into pore channels of the porous membrane material to prepare a supported liquid membrane for a gas mixture separation experiment of CO.sub.2. In the method, the amine group is introduced through chemical grafting to make the water being alkaline when used as membrane liquid. Compared with an alkaline solution as the membrane liquid, the method can avoid the loss of active alkaline substances and increase the permeation flux of CO.sub.2.

A hybrid membrane, particularly of polyacrylonitrile (PAN)/graphene oxide (GO)/SiO.sub.2, separates oil and water even from emulsions. The membrane can be made by one-step electrospinning, adding GO and SiO.sub.2 nanofillers in PAN in various concentrations. The nanofillers may be uniformly embedded in the nanofibrous structure of the electrospun hybrid membrane, with GO mainly embedded inside the PAN nanofibers and may cause knots, and/or SiO.sub.2 nanoparticles embedded on the nanofiber surface and may form micro-nano fiber surface protrusions. Hierarchical structures formed can have enhanced hydrophilicity due to oxygen-containing groups on both SiO.sub.2 and GO, and have >99% oil rejection from oil-water emulsions. Separation flux and phase rejection of gravity separation may be enhanced by incorporation of nanofillers, which may also enhance membrane mechanical properties. Separated water flux may be enhanced from 2600 (pure PAN) to 3151 Lm.sup.−2h.sup.−1 for the hybrid.