Membranes, Volume 5, Issue 4

Polyether-based polymer electrolytes containing ceramic inorganic oxide fillers often exhibit improved mechanical and ion transport properties compared to their filler-free counterparts. The nature of local scale interactions that give rise to these...

Membrane degradation is a severe factor limiting the lifetime of polymer electrolyte fuel cells. Therefore, obtaining a deeper knowledge is fundamental in order to establish fuel cells as competitive product. A segmented single cell was operated unde...

Abstract: Poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) based polymer inclusion membranes (PIMs), with different concentrations of Cyphos® IL 104 as the membrane extractant/carrier, were studied for their ability to extract Au(III) from hydrochloric acid solutions. Som...

In this paper we report an X-ray diffraction study on the phase behavior of binary lipid mixtures of 1-palmitoyl-2-docosahexaenoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphoethanolamine (DHA-PE) and 1,2-dipalmitoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DPPC) at low concentrations...

This paper examines polymer film morphology and several important properties of polyethylene-graft-sulfonated polyarylene ether sulfone (PE-g-s-PAES) proton exchange membranes (PEMs) for direct methanol fuel cell applications. Due to the extreme surf...

Integrated permeate channel (IPC) flat sheet membranes were examined for use as a reverse membrane bioreactor (rMBR) for lignocellulosic ethanol production. The fermenting organism, Saccharomyces cerevisiae (T0936), a genetically-modified strain wit...

Amyloid-β peptides interact with cell membranes in the human brain and are associated with neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease. An emerging explanation of the molecular mechanism, which results in neurodegeneration, places the cau...

Cellulose-based hydrogels, obtained by tuned, low-cost synthetic routes, are proposed as convenient gel electrolyte membranes. Hydrogels have been prepared from different types of cellulose by optimized solubilization and crosslinking steps. The obta...

Produced water represents the largest wastewater stream from oil and gas production. Generally, its high salinity level restricts the treatment options. Membrane crystallization (MCr) is an emerging membrane process with the capability to extract sim...

Sulfonic acid-functionalized polymer electrolyte membranes alternative to Nafion^® were developed. These were hydrocarbon systems, such as blend sulfonated polyetheretherketone (s-PEEK), new generation perfluorosulfonic acid (PFSA) systems, and compo...

Gel Polymer Electrolytes (GPEs) composed by ZnTf₂ salt, poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) (PVdF-HFP), and different ionic liquids are synthesized using n-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) as solvent. Three different imidazolium-based ionic li...

In order to provide a comfortable living and working environment indoors in tropical countries, the outdoor air often needs to be cooled and dehumidified before it enters the rooms. Membrane separation is an emerging technology for air dehumidificati...

Effective protection of power sources from corrosion is critical in the development of abiotic fuel cells, biofuel cells, hybrid cells and biobateries for implantable bioelectronics. Corrosion of these bioelectronic devices result in device inability...

Diffusion in lipid membranes is an essential component of many cellular process and fluorescence a method of choice to study membrane dynamics. The goal of this work was to directly compare two common fluorescence methods, line-scanning fluorescence...

The discovery of selective water channel proteins—aquaporins—has prompted growing interest in using these proteins, as the building blocks for designing new types of membranes. However, as with any other new and potentially disruptive technology, bar...

Cellular membranes have a complex phospholipid composition that varies greatly depending on the organism, cell type and function. In spite of this complexity, most structural data available for phospholipid bilayers concern model systems containing o...

A novel membrane based on silicon dioxide (SiO₂) and hydroxypropyl guar gum (HPG) as binder is presented and tested as a separator for lithium-ion batteries. The separator is made with renewable and low cost materials and an environmentally friendly...

The human genome encodes about 285 proteins that contain at least one annotated pleckstrin homology (PH) domain. As the first phosphoinositide binding module domain to be discovered, the PH domain recruits diverse protein architectures to cellular me...

Scaffolding proteins serve to assemble protein complexes in dynamic processes by means of specific protein-protein and protein-lipid binding domains. Many of these domains bind either proteins or lipids exclusively; however, it has become increasingl...

This study focused on the possibility of improving fermentative hydrogen and methane production from an inhibitory fruit-flavored medium using polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membrane-encapsulated cells. Hexanal, myrcene, and octanol, which are natura...

The interaction of lipid environments with the type I’ β-turn peptide structure called CSF114 and its N-glucosylated form CSF114(Glc), previously developed as a synthetic antigenic probe recognizing specific autoantibodies in a subpopulation of multi...

It was recently reported that static magnetic fields increase lipid order in the hydrophobic membrane core of dehydrated native plant plasma membranes [Poinapen, Soft Matter 9:6804-6813, 2013]. As plasma membranes are multicomponent, highly complex s...

Phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase-related kinases (PIKKs) play vital roles in the regulation of cell growth, proliferation, survival, and consequently metabolism, as well as in the cellular response to stresses such as ionizing radiation or redox changes...

Many reclamation treatments as well as integrated processes for the purification of olive mill wastewaters (OMW) have already been proposed and developed but not led to completely satisfactory results, principally due to complexity or cost-ineffectiv...

Our understanding of the electrical properties of cell membranes is derived from experiments where the membrane is exposed to a perturbation (in the form of a time-dependent voltage or current change) and information is extracted from the measured ou...