• Membrane Journal
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.240-248
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• 2014

Porous PVDF hollow fiber membranes were prepared by hybrid process of TIPS(thermally induced phase separation) and stretching for membrane distillation. The tests were conducted to investigate that permeability of the membrane could be enhanced by reducing membrane wall thickness. During fiber spinning, dope discharge rate from nozzle was reduced and flow rate of bore fluid increased to make the wall thickness thinner. As dope discharge rate from nozzle was reduced and flow rate of bore fluid increased, the membrane wall thickness was reduced. As a result, air permeability, water permeability and vapor permeability of the membranes increased.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.251-262
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• 2015

In this work the preparation and characterization of a membrane containing a uniform mesoporous Titanium oxide top layer on a porous stainless steel substrate has been studied. The 316 L stainless steel substrate was prepared by powder metallurgy technique and modified by soaking-rolling and fast drying method. The mesoporous titania membrane was fabricated via the sol-gel method. Morphological studies were performed on both supported and unsupported membranes using scanning electron microscope (SEM) and field emission scanning microscope (FESEM). The membranes were also characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and $N_2$-adsorption / desorption measurement (BET analyses). It was revealed that a defect-free anatase membrane with a thickness of $1.6{\mu}m$ and 4.3 nm average pore size can be produced. In order to evaluate the performance of the supported membrane, single-gas permeation experiments were carried out at room temperature with nitrogen gas. The permeability coefficient of the fabricated membrane was $4{\times}10^{-8}\;lit\;s^{-1}\;Pa^{-1}\;cm^{-1}$.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.337-350
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• 2016

Lithium-ion rechargeable batteries (LIBs) have garnered increasing attention with the rapid advancements in portable electronics, electric vehicles, and grid-scale energy storage systems which are expected to drastically change our future lives. This review describes a separator membrane, one of the key components in LIBs, in terms of porous structure and physicochemical properties, and its recent development trends are followed. The separator membrane is a kind of porous membrane that is positioned between a cathode and an anode. Its major functions involve electrical isolation between the electrodes while serving as an ionic transport channel that is filled with liquid electrolyte. The separator membranes are not directly involved in redox reactions of LIBs, however, their aforementioned roles significantly affect performance and safety of LIBs. A variety of research approaches have been recently conducted in separator membranes in order to further reinforce battery safeties and also widen chemical functionalities. This review starts with introduction to commercial polyolefin separators that are currently most widely used in LIBs. Based on this understanding, modified polyolefin separators, nonwoven separators, ceramic composite separators, and chemically active separators will be described, with special attention to their relationship with future research directions of advanced LIBs.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.373-384
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• 2015

In the past few decades, polymeric membrane has played an important role in gas separation applications. For the separation of $CO_2$, one of greenhouse gases, high permselectivity, long-term stability and scale-up are needed. However, conventional polymeric membranes have shown a trade-off relation between permeability and selectivity while inorganic materials are highly permeable but expensive. Mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) combining the advantages of both polymeric and inorganic materials have become a possible breakthrough for the next-generation gas separation membranes. The MMMs could be either symmetric or asymmetric but the latter is more preferred to improve the permeance. Important factors influencing the MMM fabrication include homogeneous distribution of inorganic particles and good interfacial contact between inorganic filler and organic matrix. Recently, metal organic frameworks (MOFs) have received much attention as a new class of porous crystalline materials and a potential candidate for $CO_2$ separation. Zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs), a sub-branch of MOFs, are the most widely used in MMMs due to small particle size and appropriate pore size for $CO_2$ separation. One of the major issues associated with the incorporation of porous particles in a polymeric membrane is to control the microstructure of the porous particle materials such as particle size, orientation, and boundary conditions etc. In this review, major challenges surrounding MMMs and the strategies to tackle these challenges are given in detail.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.185-190
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• 2008

In a previous study, we probed the potential of poly(styrene sulfonate) (PSS)/poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride) (PDADMAC) nanofiltration (NF) membranes for the separation of monovalent anions, with an emphasis on the selective rejection of $F^-$. Remarkably, deposition of $(PSS/PBADMAC)_4PSS$ films on porous alumina supports yielded membranes that exhibited $Cl^-/F^-$ selectivity > 3 with minimal $Cl^-$ rejection, and a solution flux of $3.5m^3/m^2$-day at 4.8 bar. When the number of PSS/PDADMAC bilayers was increased from 4.5 to 5.5, however, $F^-$ rejection decreased from 73% to 50% and $Cl^-/F^-$ selectivity dropped to 1.9. Addition of another bilayer to form $(PSS/PDADMAC)_6$ PSS films resulted in a significant increase in $Cl^-$ rejection to give essentially no $Cl^-/F^-$ selectivity. The decrease of selectivity with deposition of more than 4.5 bilayers was not expected and it was unclear whether this characteristic was substrate independent. In this study, to investigate the effect of substrates on NF performance of multilayer polyelectrolyte membranes, PSS/PDADMAC films were deposited on 50 kDa polyethersulfone (PES) ultrafiltration supports instead of porous alumina supports. The results indicate that, although fluoride rejection and the number of bilayers at which a maximum $F^-$ rejection occurs are different, the trend is similar for both types of substrates. Therefore, we can conclude that the M: characteristics of multilayer polyelectrolyte membranes may be substrate independent.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.221-232
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• 2018

The silica containing carbon ($C-SiO_2$) membranes were fabricated using poly(imide siloxane)(Si-PI) and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) blended polymer. The characteristics of porous carbon structures prepared by the pyrolysis of polymer blends were related with the micro-phase separation behaviors of the two polymers. The glass transition temperatures ($T_g$) of the mixed polymer blends of Si-PI and PVP were observed with a single $T_g$ using differential scanning calorimetry. Furthermore, the nitrogen adsorption isotherms of the $C-SiO_2$ membranes were investigated to define the characteristics of porous carbon structures. The $C-SiO_2$ membranes derived from Si-PI/PVP showed the type IV isotherm and possessed the hysteresis loop, which was associated with the mesoporous carbon structures. For the molecular sieving probe, the $C-SiO_2$ membranes were prepared with the ratio of Si-PI/PVP and the pyrolysis conditions, such as the pyrolysis temperature and the isothermal times. Consequently, the $C-SiO_2$ membranes prepared by the pyrolysis of Si-PI/PVP at $550^{\circ}C$ with the isothermal time of 120 min showed the $O_2$ permeability of 820 Barrer ($1{\times}10^{-10}cm^3(STP)cm/cm^2{\cdot}s{\cdot}cmHg$) and $O_2/N_2$ selectivity of 14.

• Proceedings of the Membrane Society of Korea Conference
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• 1998.10a
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• pp.63-65
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• 1998

1. Introduction : Atmospheric discharge of VOC-contaminated streams in chemical plants and air streams from chemical processes poses a serious environmental problem and entails large financial losses. Such emissions may be reduced by i) adsorption process, ii) absorption process and iii) incineration process. These processes only forbids the air pollutions. Throughout the recent decade, another technique-membrane process has emerged. The separation and recovery of organic vapors by membrane process may have great economic potential. Most of the published research works on the separation of organic vapors from air were performed using silicon rubber membranes. However, it is very difficult to fabricate very thin membranes with less than 1 $u m thickness. Plasma polymerization could be a good technique to generate a thin polymer film. The objective of this work is to find out the optimum condition of plasma polymerization for producing VOC separation membrane. For the objective, composite membranes are prepared through plasma polymerization of hexamethyldisiloxane onto porous substrates under different conditions. The membrane is then subjected to the permeation of permanent gases and VOCs to find the correlations between the physical properties of the penetrant and permeability and selectivity.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.309-321
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• 2015

We report in this study the synthesis of mixed matrix reverse osmosis membranes by interfacial polymerization (IP) of thin film nanocomposite (TFNC) on porous polysulfone supports (PS). This paper investigates the synthesis of ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) using the sol-gel processing technique and evaluates the performance of mixed matrix membranes reached by these aerogel NPs. Aqueous m-phenyl diamine (MPD) and organic trimesoyl chloride (TMC)-NPs mixture solutions were used in the IP process. The reaction of MPD and TMC at the interface of PS substrates resulted in the formation of the thin film composite (TFC). NPs of ZnO with a size of about 25 nm were used for the fabrication of the TFNC membranes. These membranes were characterized and evaluated in comparison with neat TFC ones. Their performances were evaluated based on the water permeability and salt rejection. Experimental results indicated that the NPs improved membrane performance under optimal concentration of NPs. By changing the content of the filler, better hydrophilicity was obtained; the contact angle was decreased from $74^{\circ}$ to $32^{\circ}$. Also, the permeate water flux was increased from 26 to 49 L/m2.h when the content of NPs is 0.1 (wt.%) with the maintaining of lower salt passage of 1%.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.441-448
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• 2017

In this study, the effects of membrane characteristics on the power generation performance in reverse electrodialysis (RED) have been investigated with pore-filled ion-exchange membranes (PFIEMs) prepared by employing a porous polyethylene substrate and the mixtures of three cross-linking agents. As a result, it was confirmed through the correlation analyses that the cross-linking degree and free volume of the PFIEMs were effectively controlled by mixing the cross-linking agents having different molecular sizes, influencing complexly the electrochemical characteristics of the membranes and the power generation performance in RED. In particular, the pore-filled cation-exchange membranes at the optimum cross-linking conditions exhibited the power generation performance superior to that of the commercial membranes and the pore-filled anion-exchange membranes also showed the excellent performance close to that of the commercial membrane.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.330-337
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• 2005

Water selective silica membranes were prepared fur use as membrane reactor for synthesis of dimethyl ether (DME) by methanol dehydration. Silica membranes formed on a Porous SUS tube by ultrasonic spray Pyrolysis (USP) and chemical vapor deposition (CVD) using tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) as precursor. The CVD-derived membranes formed higher level of trade-off line between water permeance and water/methanol selectivity than that of the USP-derived membranes. The membrane reactor possessing water permeance of $1.2\times10^{-7}\;mol\;{\cdot}\;m^{-2}\;{\cdot}\;S^{-1}\;{\cdot}\;Pa^{-1}$ and water/methanol selectivity of 10 exhibited increase in methanol conversion of about $20\%$ comparing to conventional reactor system. These findings led us to conclude that the dehydration membrane reactor simultaneously separating the water vapour produced in the reaction zone was effective in increasing the reaction conversion.