ABSTRACTA series of cellulose triacetate (CTA) membranes were prepared via thermally induced phase separation (TIPS) process with dimethyl sulfone (DMSO2) and polyethylene glycol (PEG400) as a crystallizable diluent and an additive, respectively. The phase separation behavior of CTA/DMSO2/PEG400 ternary system was investigated in detail by optical microscopy, differential scanning calorimetry and wide angle X-ray diffraction. This ternary system dynamically undergoes solid-solid phase separation and thus the CTA membranes possess cellular, lacy, plate-, or even ellipse-shaped pores. However, we can modulate the pore structure, porosity, water flux, and mechanical properties of the membranes by varying polymer concentration, composition of the mixed diluent, and cooling condition. Due to the intrinsic hydrophilicity, the prepared CTA membranes have better antifouling property than polysulfone membranes. These porous membranes were used as supports to fabricate thin-film composite forward osmosis (FO) membranes, which show good water permeability and selectivity. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2017, 134, 44454.

•Hydrophilic imogolite nanotubes were synthesized and blended in PSf substrate.•Hydrophilicity and porosity of the modified PSf substrates were improved.•Novel thin film nanocomposite FO membranes were developed.•TFN FO membranes exhibited low structural parameter and minimum ICP.Novel thin film nanocomposite (TFN) membranes were fabricated by interfacial polymerization on imogolite nanotubes (INTs) blended substrates for the forward osmosis (FO) desalination. INTs as intrinsically hydrophilic nanotubes were synthesized and characterized to be with length of 100–200 nm, outer diameter of 2 nm, and inner diameter of 1 nm. Then, different INTs loading (0.33, 0.66 and 1.0 wt%) were used to prepare INTs blended polysulfone (PSf) substrates, whose morphology and properties were investigated in detail. It is found that the incorporation of INTs obviously enhanced the hydrophilicity, pure water flux, overall porosity, surface porosity and roughness of PSf substrates. The TFN membranes demonstrated superior water permeance and salt rejection compared to the thin film composite (TFC) membranes. Among others, TFN 0.66 with 0.66 wt% INTs blended PSf substrate showed the best over-all properties which are important for demonstrating good osmotic performance in FO. Moreover, TFN membranes presented smaller structural parameters than TFC membrane, which means that internal concentration polarization (ICP) effect can be alleviated by incorporating hydrophilic INTs into substrates. The obtained TFN membranes with INTs blended substrates could develop opportunities in desalination.

•PVDF/PAN blend separators are prepared via thermally induced phase separation method.•PVDF/PAN blend separators show enhanced tensile strength and thermal stability with the introduction of PAN.•The lithium ion batteries with PVDF/PAN blend separators exhibit high C-rate performance.•The lithium ion batteries with PVDF/PAN blend separators present good reversible charge/discharge cycle stability.PVDF/PAN blend porous membranes were prepared via thermally induced phase separation (TIPS) and used as separators for lithium ion batteries. TIPS behavior was investigated in detail to control the morphology, pore size, porosity, and mechanical properties of the blend separators as a function of PAN content. Rod-like pores are the typical structure resulted from solid−solid phase separation, while the pore size and porosity decrease with an increase of PAN in the blend. The introduction of PAN enhances the tensile strength and the thermal stability of the blend separator. The electrolyte uptake and the ionic conductivity reduce correspondingly with the decrease of the pore size and the porosity. However, the graphite/polymer electrolyte/LiFePO4 batteries with the blend separators exhibit higher C-rate performance, and better reversible charge/discharge cycle stability than those with PVDF separators and the commercial Celgard 2400.

Porous carbon membranes were favorably fabricated through the pyrolysis of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) precursors, which were prepared with a template-free technique-thermally induced phase separation. These carbon membranes possess hierarchical pores, including cellular macropores across the whole membranes and much small pores in the matrix as well as on the pore walls. Nitrogen adsorption indicates micropores (1.47 and 1.84 nm) and mesopores (2.21 nm) exist inside the carbon membranes, resulting in their specific surface area as large as 1062 m2/g. The carbon membranes were used to adsorb organic dyes (methyl orange, Congo red, and rhodamine B) from aqueous solutions based on their advantages of hierarchical pore structures and large specific surface area. It is particularly noteworthy that the membranes present a selective adsorption towards methyl orange, whose molecular size (1.2 nm) is smaller than those of Congo red (2.3 nm) and rhodamine B (1.8 nm). This attractive result can be attributed to the steric structure matching between the molecular size and the pore size, rather than electrostatic attraction. Furthermore, the used carbon membranes can be easily regenerated by hydrochloric acid, and their recovery adsorption ratio maintains above 90% even in the third cycle. This work may provide a new route for carbon-based adsorbents with hierarchical pores via a template-free approach, which could be promisingly applied to selectively remove dye contaminants in aqueous effluents.