Advanced Organic Porous Polymer, Nanocomposite Membranes for Molecular Separation

Dear Colleagues, 

Membrane separation technology plays a crucial role in various industries, including desalination, water treatment, food processing, chemical and pharmaceutical sectors, and biomedical engineering. Membranes act as a barrier to the movement of molecular and ionic species in liquids and/or vapors, and their unique separation concept has drawn the attention of chemists, chemical and biotechnical engineers in recent decades. Compared to conventional unit operations, membrane separations offer selective transport and efficient separation, can be conducted isothermally at low temperatures, and require less energy usage without the need for additives. 

The materials used in membrane-based approaches are critical in achieving desirable separation performance, including good selectivity, high permeability, and long-term stability. However, conventional polymeric materials such as polyamide (PA), polyimide (PI), polyether sulfone (PES), polyacrylonitrile (PAN), polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), and polysulfone (PSF) have limited chemical, mechanical and thermal stabilities, and suffer from the trade-off between selectivity and permeability due to their inherent non-uniform pore structure and limited porosity. To overcome these limitations, researchers have modified membranes with nanomaterials to improve water permeance, solute rejection, anti-fouling ability, chlorine resistance, and antibacterial performance of thin-film composite (TFC) membranes. Furthermore, there has been great interest in integrating 2D organic microporous structures into membranes, offering remarkable merits such as ultrathin nature, highly tunable pores/channels, and light weight. These novel 2D porous organic polymers (POPs)-based membranes have the potential to provide enhanced performance that surpasses the permeability-selectivity trade-off of current commercial membranes. 

This special issue welcomes research articles, communications, and critical/comprehensive reviews related to the recent developments and applications of 2D porous organic polymers (POPs) in membrane-based molecular separations, including gas separation, organic solvent separation, water treatment, desalination, and hemodialysis in biomedical. Specifically, studies related to the synthesis of membranes using porous organic polymers and nanomaterials to improve performance, simulation/modeling/calculation related to nano-composite membranes/2D POPs-based membranes/engineered membrane for separation processes, and transport phenomena would be appropriate for this special issue. Topics covered in this special issue include membrane fabrication and modification for molecular separations, polymer and nanocomposite materials for improved membrane separations, mathematical and artificial intelligence modeling mechanism separation of nanocomposite membrane, 2D porous organic polymers-based membrane, membrane fabrication and modification for separation processes (UF, NF, RO, FO, MD, pervaporation et.), and hybrid systems of innovative membranes with other processes for efficient molecular separation

Dr. Thanh Tin Nguyen
Dr. Naixin Wang
Dr. Duc Viet Nguyen
Guest Editors

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• organic polymer
• nanocomposite
• membrane separation
• membrane materials
• membrane fouling
• molecular transport
• membrane fabrication and modification
• mathematical modeling
• artificial intelligence modeling
• organic solvent
• water treatment
• desalination
• gas separation