Green and Sustainable Membranes: A review

Membranes are ubiquitous tools for modern water treatment technology that critically eliminate hazardous materials such as organic, inorganic, heavy metals, and biomedical pollutants. Nowadays, nano-membranes are of particular interest for myriad applications such as water treatment, desalination, ion exchange, ion concentration control, and several kinds of biomedical applications. However, this state-of-the-art technology suffers from some drawbacks, e.g., toxicity and fouling of contaminants, which makes the synthesis of green and sustainable membranes indeed safety-threatening. Typically, sustainability, non-toxicity, performance optimization, and commercialization are concerns centered on manufacturing green synthesized membranes. Thus, critical issues related to toxicity, biosafety, and mechanistic aspects of green-synthesized nano-membranes have to be systematically and comprehensively reviewed and discussed. Herein we evaluate various aspects of green nano-membranes in terms of their synthesis, characterization, recycling, and commercialization aspects. Nanomaterials intended for nano-membrane development are classified in view of their chemistry/synthesis, advantages, and limitations. Indeed, attaining prominent adsorption capacity and selectivity in green-synthesized nano-membranes requires multi-objective optimization of a number of materials and manufacturing parameters. In addition, the efficacy and removal performance of green nano-membranes are analyzed theoretically and experimentally to provide researchers and manufacturers with a comprehensive image of green nano-membrane efficiency under real environmental conditions.

Influence of Pectin as a green polymer electrolyte on the transport properties of Chitosan-Pectin membranes

Novel blend membranes have been prepared from Chitosan (CH), Pectin (PEC) and their mixtures. The obtained samples were cross-linked and sulfonated before characterization. The results show that CH/PEC membranes display structural changes on the chemical and physical properties as a function of composition. DSC analysis reveals an endothermic peak due to the scission of the ionic pairs between carboxylic groups and ammonium groups, which produces a strong change on physical properties such as methanol permeability and proton conductivity. The methanol permeability decreases with the amount of Pectin from (4.24±0.04)×10^-6cm²/s for pure Chitosan membrane to (1.51±0.03)×10^-6cm²/s for blend CH/PEC membranes when the amount of Pectin is 50% (v/v). The proton conductivities of the blend membranes follow a similar behavior. For a pure CH membrane the conductivity is 2.44×10^-3S/cm, decreasing with pectin content until the composition 50/50 (v/v), in which the conductivity drops almost one order of magnitude.

Flexible and enhanced thermal conductivity of a Al2O3@polyimide hybrid film via coaxial electrospinning

A core–shell Al₂O₃@PI fiber was prepared by coaxial electrospinning, which showed excellent properties of flexibility and in plane thermal conductivity.

Highly flexible, proton-conductive silicate glass electrolytes for medium-temperature/low-humidity proton exchange membrane fuel cells

We demonstrate highly flexible, proton-conductive silicate glass electrolytes integrated with polyimide (PI) nonwoven fabrics (referred to as "b-SS glass electrolytes") for potential use in medium-temperature/low-humidity proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). The b-SS glass electrolytes are fabricated via in situ sol-gel synthesis of 3-trihydroxysilyl-1-propanesulfonic acid (THPSA)/3-glycidyloxypropyl trimethoxysilane (GPTMS) mixtures inside PI nonwoven substrates that serve as a porous reinforcing framework. Owing to this structural uniqueness, the b-SS glass electrolytes provide noticeable improvements in mechanical bendability and membrane thickness, in comparison to typical bulk silicate glass electrolytes that are thick and easily fragile. Another salient feature of the b-SS glass electrolytes is the excellent proton conductivity at harsh measurement conditions of medium temperature/low humidity, which is highly important for PEMFC-powered electric vehicle applications. This beneficial performance is attributed to the presence of a highly interconnected, proton-conductive (THPSA/GPTMS-based) silicate glass matrix in the PI reinforcing framework. Notably, the b-SS glass electrolyte synthesized from THPSA/GPTMS = 9/1 (mol/mol) exhibits a higher proton conductivity than water-swollen sulfonated polymer electrolyte membranes (here, sulfonated poly(arylene ether sulfone) and Nafion are chosen as control samples). This intriguing behavior in the proton conductivity of the b-SS glass electrolytes is discussed in great detail by considering its structural novelty and Grotthuss mechanism-driven proton migration that is strongly affected by ion exchange capacity (IEC) values and also state of water.