Nanotechnology and Hybrid Membranes 2.0

A special issue of Membranes (ISSN 2077-0375). This special issue belongs to the section "Inorganic Membranes".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 December 2023) | Viewed by 485

Special Issue Editor

Department of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA
Interests: polymer nanocomposite materials; mixed matrix membranes; carbon nanotubes; mechanical properties; thermal properties; gas permeability
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Membrane technology provides attractive advantages over the “traditional” absorption, and adsorption processes, which suffer from drawbacks like corrosivity, complex process lay-out, high installation and operation costs and energy-consuming regeneration processes. Inorganic polycrystalline membranes and organic polymeric membranes are commonly used in numerous separation processes, mainly gas separations. Both membrane systems present many advantages but also limitations. Inorganic membranes possess high thermal, mechanical, and chemical stability combined with notable durability. Compared to polymeric membranes, they exhibit higher permeability and selectivity. On the other hand, their significant brittleness, high cost, and processability, and scale-up potential have held back the commercialization of inorganic membranes. 

In an effort to overcome the aforementioned problems in membrane performance, polymer nanocomposite materials have drawn attention due to their capability of tuning their physicochemical properties depending on the application. The choice of both polymer type and appropriate nanofiller, combined with the employed processing parameters, can result in new materials with completely different properties – improved or new - that can be used in a wide range of applications, including textiles, packaging, transportation and the biomedical field. 

The membrane technology has embraced the concept of nanocomposite materials by introducing the definition of hybrid membranes. Considerable effort has been dedicated to the synthesis and performance optimization of hybrid membrane materials, mainly polymeric ones, by the incorporation of nanoparticles, such as carbon nanotubes and nanostructured metal oxides. The potential of these hybrid materials lies in the capability of the nanoparticles to improve the membrane properties, including increase in permeability coefficients and selectivity, and enhancements of electrical and/or mechanical properties. These effects are correlated to the change of the degree of crystallinity, polymer chain mobility, and the structure of polymer free volume, which interacts with nanoparticles. The change of permeation or conductivity is connected with the formation of a percolation threshold in the nanostructured domains at a critical concentration of nanoparticles in the polymeric membrane. 

These major breakthroughs lead the way to greatly enhanced membrane performance and efficiency and many new exciting possibilities. This Special Issue offers a perfect site to document state-of-the-art developments and innovations in nanostructured hybrid membranes. Authors are therefore invited to submit their latest results; both original papers and reviews are welcome.

Dr. Stephanos Nitodas
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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 2700 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.

Keywords

  • membranes processing
  • hybrid membrane materials
  • nanotechnology
  • membrane properties enhancement
  • nanostructured carbon
  • nano-oxides

Published Papers

There is no accepted submissions to this special issue at this moment.
Back to TopTop