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A special issue of Polymers (ISSN 2073-4360). This special issue belongs to the section "Polymer Membranes and Films".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2021) | Viewed by 19060

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Anastasia V. Penkova

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Department of Analytical Chemistry, Institute of Chemistry, St. Petersburg State University, Universitetsky Prospect 26, St. Petersburg 198504, Russia
Interests: polymer membranes; nanocomposites; pervaporation; ultrafiltration; gas separation; nanofiltration; thermodynamics and kinetics of nonequilibrium processes; layer by layer; bulk modification; surface modification; mixed matrix membranes; plasma treatment; dehydration; water treatment
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Dr. Mariia E. Dmitrenko

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Department of Analytical Chemistry, Institute of Chemistry, St. Petersburg State University, Universitetsky Prospect 26, St. Petersburg 198504, Russia
Interests: polymer membranes; composite; ultrafiltration; nanofiltration; pervaporation; membrane mass transport; polyelectrolytes; surface and bulk modification
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Dr. Tatiana Plisko

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Institute of Physical Organic Chemistry, National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, Minsk, Belarus
Interests: polymer membrane; polymer membrane modification; membrane separation processes; ultrafiltration; pervaporation; nanofiltration; gas separation; thin film composite membranes; biodegradable polymers; smart membranes; smart polymers; mixed matrix membranes; polymer solutions
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Membrane processes have gained an important place in the world due to their effectiveness, sustainability, and low environmental impact. Polymer membranes with tailored properties obtained by bulk or surface modification by different approaches or prepared from new designed polymers are of significant fundamental and industrial interest in various fields. Novel preparation and modification techniques for polymer membranes help to develop emission-free “green” membrane processes that are particularly necessary for modern society. Special emphasis will be placed on but not limited to the following:

- Membrane development;
- Membrane characterization;
- Bulk membrane modification;
- Surface membrane modification (plasma, layer-by layer, thin layers);
- Membrane transport properties;
- Simulation of membrane processes;
- Application of novel membrane materials.

Keywords

microfiltration
ultrafiltration
nanofiltration
reverse osmosis
gas separation
vapor permeation
pervaporation
membrane distillation
membrane contactors
composite membranes
mixed matrix membranes
hybrid membranes
membrane mass-transport
modeling/simulation
layer by layer
polyelectrolytes

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Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 8096 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Novel High Flux Poly(m-phenylene isophtalamide)/TiO₂ Membranes for Ultrafiltration with Enhanced Antifouling Performance

by Mariia Dmitrenko, Anna Kuzminova, Andrey Zolotarev, Vladislav Liamin, Tatiana Plisko, Katsiaryna Burts, Alexandr Bildyukevich, Sergey Ermakov and Anastasia Penkova

Polymers 2021, 13(16), 2804; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym13162804 - 20 Aug 2021

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2760

Abstract

Wide application of ultrafiltration in different industrial fields requires the development of new membranes with tailored properties and good antifouling stability. This study is devoted to the improvement of ultrafiltration properties of poly(m-phenylene isophtalamide) (PA) membranes by modification with titanium oxide (TiO₂) particles. The introduction of TiO₂ particles improved membrane separation performance and increased antifouling stability and cleaning ability under UV irradiation. The developed membranes were characterized by scanning electron and atomic force microscopy methods, the measurements of water contact angle, and total porosimetry. The transport properties of the PA and PA/TiO₂ membranes were tested in ultrafiltration of industrially important feeds: coolant lubricant (cutting fluid) emulsion (5 wt.% in water) and bovine serum albumin (BSA) solution (0.5 wt.%). The PA/TiO₂ (0.3 wt.%) membrane was found to possess optimal transport characteristics in ultrafiltration of coolant lubricant emulsion due to the highest pure water and coolant lubricant fluxes (1146 and 32 L/(m² h), respectively), rejection coefficient (100%), and flux recovery ratio (84%). Furthermore, this membrane featured improved ability of surface contamination degradation after UV irradiation in prolonged ultrafiltration of BSA, demonstrating a high flux recovery ratio (89–94%). Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Polymeric Materials for Membrane Technology)

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17 pages, 4295 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceArticle

Hybrid Microporous Polymeric Materials with Outstanding Permeability and Increased Gas Transport Stability: PTMSP Aging Prevention by Sorption of the Polymerization Catalyst on HCPS

by Georgy Golubev, Danila Bakhtin, Sergey Makaev, Ilya Borisov and Alexey Volkov

Polymers 2021, 13(12), 1922; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym13121922 - 9 Jun 2021

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2607

Abstract

The influence of hyper-crosslinked polystyrene (HCPS) Macronet^TM MN200 on the gas transport properties and aging of the highly permeable glassy polymer poly(1-trimethylsilyl-1-propyne) (PTMSP) was studied and analyzed in detail. The gas transport characteristics of dense PTMSP membranes containing 0–10.0 wt % HCPS were studied. It was shown that the introduction of a small amount of HCPS into the PTMSP matrix led to a 50–60% increase of the permeability coefficients of the material for light gases (N₂, O₂, CO₂) and slowed down the deterioration of polymer transport properties over time. The lowest reduction in gas permeability coefficients (50–57%) was found for PTMSP containing HCPS 5.0 wt % after annealing at 100 °C for 300 h. It was found that HCPS sorbed residues of tantalum-based polymerization catalyst from PTMSP. In order to investigate the influence of catalysts on transport and physical properties of PTMSP, we purified the latter from the polymerization catalyst by addition of 5 wt % HCPS into polymer/chloroform solution. It was shown that sorption on HCPS allowed for almost complete removal of tantalum compounds from PTMSP. The membrane made of PTMSP purified by HCPS demonstrated more stable transport characteristics compared to the membrane made of the initial polymer. HCPS has a complex effect on the aging process of PTMSP. The introduction of HCPS into the polymer matrix not only slowed down the physical aging of PTMSP, but also reduced chemical aging due to removal of active reagents. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Polymeric Materials for Membrane Technology)

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17 pages, 5583 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceArticle

Enhancing Pervaporation Membrane Selectivity by Incorporating Star Macromolecules Modified with Ionic Liquid for Intensification of Lactic Acid Dehydration

by Valeriia Rostovtseva, Alexandra Pulyalina, Roman Dubovenko, Ilya Faykov, Kseniya Subbotina, Natalia Saprykina, Alexander Novikov, Ludmila Vinogradova and Galina Polotskaya

Polymers 2021, 13(11), 1811; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym13111811 - 31 May 2021

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 2820

Abstract

Modification of polymer matrix by hybrid fillers is a promising way to produce membranes with excellent separation efficiency due to variations in membrane structure. High-performance membranes for the pervaporation dehydration were produced by modifying poly(2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene oxide) (PPO) to facilitate lactic acid purification. Ionic liquid (IL), heteroarm star macromolecules (HSM), and their combination (IL:HSM) were employed as additives to the polymer matrix. The composition and structure of hybrid membranes were characterized by X-ray diffraction and FTIR spectroscopy. Scanning electron microscopy was used to investigate the membranes surface and cross-section morphology. It was established that the inclusion of modifiers in the polymer matrix leads to the change of membrane structure. The influence of IL:HSM was also studied via sorption experiments and pervaporation of water‒lactic acid mixtures. Lactic acid is an essential compound in many industries, including food, pharmaceutical, chemical, while the recovering and purifying account for approximately 50% of its production cost. It was found that the membranes selectively remove water from the feed. Quantum mechanical calculations determine the favorable interactions between various membrane components and the liquid mixture. With IL:HSM addition, the separation factor and performance in lactic acid dehydration were improved compared with pure polymer membrane. The best performance was found for (HSM: IL)-PPO/UPM composite membrane, where the permeate flux and the separation factor of about 0.06 kg m⁻² h⁻¹ and 749, respectively, were obtained. The research results demonstrated that ionic liquids in combination with star macromolecules for membrane modification could be a promising approach for membrane design. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Polymeric Materials for Membrane Technology)

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32 pages, 11260 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Novel Membranes Based on Hydroxyethyl Cellulose/Sodium Alginate for Pervaporation Dehydration of Isopropanol

by Mariia Dmitrenko, Andrey Zolotarev, Vladislav Liamin, Anna Kuzminova, Anton Mazur, Konstantin Semenov, Sergey Ermakov and Anastasia Penkova

Polymers 2021, 13(5), 674; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym13050674 - 24 Feb 2021

Cited by 18 | Viewed by 3508

Abstract

Membrane methods, especially pervaporation, are quickly growing up. In line with that, effective membrane materials based on biopolymers are required for the industrially significant mixtures separation. To essentially improve membrane transport characteristics, the application of the surface or/and bulk modifications can be carried out. In the present study, novel dense and supported membranes based on hydroxyethyl cellulose (HEC)/sodium alginate (SA) were developed for pervaporation dehydration of isopropanol using several approaches: (1) the selection of the optimal ratio of polymers, (2) the introduction of fullerenol in blend polymer matrix, (3) the selection of the optimal cross-linking agent for the membranes, (4) the application of layer-by-layer deposition of polyelectrolytes on supported membrane surface (poly(sodium 4-styrenesulfonate) (PSS)/poly(allylamine hydrochloride) (PAH) and PSS/SA). Structural and physicochemical characteristics of the membranes were analyzed by different methods. A cross-linked supported membrane based on HEC/SA/fullerenol (5%) composite possessed the following transport characteristics in pervaporation dehydration of isopropanol (12–50 wt.% water): 0.42–1.72 kg/(m²h) permeation flux, and 77.8–99.99 wt.% water content in the permeate. The surface modification of this membrane with 5 bilayers of PSS/PAH and PSS/SA resulted in the increase of permeation flux up to 0.47–3.0 and 0.46–1.9 kg/(m²h), respectively, with lower selectivity. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Polymeric Materials for Membrane Technology)

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14 pages, 7706 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceArticle

Phase Separation within a Thin Layer of Polymer Solution as Prompt Technique to Predict Membrane Morphology and Transport Properties

by Tatiana Anokhina, Ilya Borisov, Alexey Yushkin, Gleb Vaganov, Andrey Didenko and Alexey Volkov

Polymers 2020, 12(12), 2785; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym12122785 - 25 Nov 2020

Cited by 15 | Viewed by 2891

Abstract

In this work, the precipitation of a thin layer of a polymer solution was proposed to imitate the process of asymmetric membrane formation by a non-solvent induced phase separation (NIPS) technique. The phase inversion within the thin (<500 μm) and bulk (~2 cm) layer of polyamic-acid (PAA) in N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) by using water as non-solvent was considered. It was shown that polymer films formed within the “limited” layer of polymer solution showed a good agreement with the morphology of corresponded asymmetric flat-sheet membranes even in the case of three-component casting solution (PAA/NMP/EtOH). At the same time, the polymer films formed on the interface of two bulk phases (“infinite” regime) did not fully correspond to the membrane structure. It was shown that up to 50% of NMP solvent in PAA solution can be replaced by ethanol, which can have a renewable origin. By changing the ethanol content in the casting solution, the average size of transport pores can be varied in the range of 12–80 nm, and the liquid permeance from 16.6 up to 207 kg/m²∙h∙bar. To summarize, the precipitation of polymer solution within the thin layer can be considered a prompt technique and a powerful tool for fast screening and optimization of the complex composition of casting solutions using its small quantity. Furthermore, the prediction of membrane morphology can be done without casting the membrane, further post-treatment procedures, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Polymeric Materials for Membrane Technology)

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13 pages, 26517 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceArticle

Barrier Film of Etherified Hemicellulose from Single-Step Synthesis

by Hui Shao, Yuelong Zhao, Hui Sun, Biao Yang, Baomin Fan, Huijuan Zhang and Yunxuan Weng

Polymers 2020, 12(10), 2199; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym12102199 - 25 Sep 2020

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 3216

Abstract

Hemicellulose with good biodegradability and low oxygen permeability shows great potential in food packaging. However, its strong hydrophilicity leads to its poor moisture resistance, which hinders its wider application. In this paper, a near-hydrophobic hemicellulose was obtained by using single-step synthesis from poplar powder via etherification modification with epoxy chloropropane. This proposed approach has the advantage of avoiding the destruction of hemicellulose structure by secondary alkali-hydrolysis, which was what usually occurred in traditional etherification procedures. The feasibility of using epoxy chloropropane as an alkylation reagent to etherify hemicellulose was confirmed, and the reaction mechanism was elucidated. Contact angle test, thermogravimetric analysis, oxygen transmittance test, and infrared spectrum analysis showed that the barrier property and thermal stability of etherified hemicellulose films have been significantly improved. At an epoxy chloropropane/wood powder ratio (volume/weight) of 2/3 (mL/g), the epoxy hemicellulose films contained the most epoxy groups and displayed the best performance, i.e., tensile strength of 14.6 MPa, surface contact angle of 71.7° and oxygen transmission coefficient of 1.9 (cm³·µm)/(m²·d·kPa), showing great promise as barrier film in food-packaging. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Polymeric Materials for Membrane Technology)

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