Surface Modification and Functionalization of Polymer Membranes/Films

Dear Colleagues,

The Special Issue "Surface Modification and Functionalization of Polymer Membranes/Films" addresses the recent research achievements covering the problems of surface modification and functionalization of membrane materials and development of new materials with advanced and task-oriented properties for different membrane applications. This issue involves the broad spectrum of academic and applied aspects and captures the challenging problems of surface modification and functionalization of polymer membranes: from the synthesis of innovative functionalized polymers and multicomponent systems to chemical/physical modification of existing membrane materials by different methods, including chemical grafting, photografting, radiation, crosslinking, plasma and laser treatment, ion sputtering, the controlled incorporation of functional additives and preparation of multicomponent hybrid systems, and the task-oriented design of new functional membrane materials with tailored morphology, etc. for different membrane processes (gas and liquid separation, pervaporation, water treatment, reverse osmosis, ultra/nanofiltration, membrane distillation, membrane contactors, membrane catalysis, environmental monitoring, biomedical purposes, etc.). Special attention is paid to facile, ecologically friendly, sustainable, high-performance and low-cost strategies allowing the functionalization and surface modification of membrane materials. Modified membrane materials with new functionalities are characterized by different physicochemical methods (TEM, SEM, AFM, IR spectroscopy, DSC, permporometry, GPC, EPR, contact angle and sorption measurements, etc.) to reveal the correlation between their structure (porous and non-porous membranes, pore size and pore size distribution, porosity, chemical composition, free volume, morphology, structural organization at different scale levels, phase composition, hydrophilic/lypophilic balance, etc.) and performance (membrane selectivity for gas and fluid separation, mechanical properties, lifetime, stability, etc.) as the avenue for the task-oriented development of innovative membrane materials. This Special Issue is also focused on the controlled functionalization of polymeric membrane materials for the solution of vital ecological problems, including CO₂ capture, selective high-performance membrane processes, water treatment, ecological safety, etc. This scientific direction has an evident interdisciplinary character and involves the benefits of different scientific directions. Specific topics of interests include:

• Synthesis of functionalized polymeric membrane materials based on new polymers, block copolymers, comb-shaped polymers, multicomponent multilayered polymers (dense and porous membranes, multicomponent membranes), their structure and morphology, membrane performance, and areas of practical application;
• Functionalization and surface modification of membrane polymeric materials by chemical methods (grafting, photografting, surface treatment with chemical reagents, etc.) their structure and morphology, membrane performance, and areas of practical application;
• Functionalization and surface modification of membrane polymeric materials by physicochemical methods (plasma treatment, irradiation, ion sputtering, ozonation, rolling, stretching, etc.); their structure and morphology, membrane performance, and areas of practical application;
• Functionalization and surface modification of membrane polymeric materials by deposition and incorporation of functional inorganic and organic additives;
• Liquid-supported functional membranes;
• New functionalities and new properties of the modified polymeric membranes for task-oriented purposes;
• Multifunctional polymeric membranes: structure and morphology, membrane performance, and areas of practical application;
• Characterization of functional membrane materials by diverse physicochemical methods;
• Performance of the modified functional membranes for diverse membrane applications;
• Correlation between the conditions of functionalization, structure, and performance of the modified membrane materials;
• Applied aspects, use, and mechanism of the action of the modified functional membranes (ultra/nanofiltration, pervaporation, oil permeability, reverse osmosis, selective sorption, catalysis, gas and fluid separation, biomedical applications, etc.);
• Advantages of the functional membranes for the solution of ecological problems (CO₂ capture, water purification, monitoring, etc.);
• Functional membranes for biomedical applications;
• Membrane technological processes;
• Computational studies and models for the description of the membrane processes;
• Application of the modified membrane materials (food packing, separators, scaffolds, breathable materials, biomedical applications, wastewater treatment, gas separation membranes, selective membranes, catalytic membranes, reverse osmosis, ultra/nanofiltration, pervaporation, distillation, membrane contactors, etc.).

Dr. Olga Arzhakova
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Membranes is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• functionalization of membrane materials
• surface modification of membrane materials
• structure and performance of membrane materials
• membrane morphology
• membrane processes
• functional membranes