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Membranes, Volume 13, Issue 3

2023 March - 113 articles

Cover Story: This study developed a novel composite membrane fabricated from graphitic carbon nitride (g−C3N4) and Nafion and applied it to steam electrolysis with excellent results. g−C3N4 is uniformly dispersed among the non-homogeneous functionalized particles of the polymer, and it improves the thermostability of the membranes. The amino and imino active sites on the nanosheet surface enhance the proton conductivity. Above 100 °C, the modified membranes exhibit high conductivity, and no sudden decreases in conductivity are observed. The Nafion/g−C3N4 membranes exhibit excellent performance when utilized as a steam electrolyzer. Compared with that of previous studies, this approach achieves better electrolytic behavior with a relatively low catalyst loading. View this paper
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Articles (113)

  • Article
  • Open Access
2 Citations
2,768 Views
13 Pages

Structural and Functional Characterization of the Newly Designed Antimicrobial Peptide Crabrolin21

  • Francesca Cantini,
  • Paola Giannì,
  • Sara Bobone,
  • Cassandra Troiano,
  • Hugo van Ingen,
  • Renato Massoud,
  • Nicoletta Perini,
  • Luciana Migliore,
  • Philippe Savarin and
  • Marco Sette
  • + 2 authors

(1) Background: antimicrobial resistance is becoming a dramatic problem for public health, and the design of new antimicrobial agents is an active research area. (2) Methods: based on our previous work, we designed an improved version of the crabroli...

  • Feature Paper
  • Article
  • Open Access
16 Citations
5,094 Views
22 Pages

At present, the types of pollutants in wastewater are more and more complicated, however, the multifunctional membrane materials are in short supply. To prepare a membrane with both high efficient oil-in-water emulsion separation performance and phot...

  • Article
  • Open Access
8 Citations
2,402 Views
17 Pages

Electrodialysis (ED) applications have expanded in recent years and new modes of operation are being investigated. Operation at overlimiting currents involves the phenomenon of electroconvection, which is associated with the generation of vortices. T...

  • Article
  • Open Access
2 Citations
2,976 Views
23 Pages

The insertion of proteins into membranes is crucial for understanding their function in many biological processes. In this work, we present UNILIPID, a universal implicit lipid-protein description as a methodology for dealing with implicit membranes....

  • Article
  • Open Access
3 Citations
5,017 Views
12 Pages

A Simple, Semi-Quantitative Acyl Biotin Exchange-Based Method to Detect Protein S-Palmitoylation Levels

  • Valentina Buffa,
  • Giorgia Adamo,
  • Sabrina Picciotto,
  • Antonella Bongiovanni and
  • Daniele P. Romancino

Protein S-palmitoylation is a reversible post-translational lipidation in which palmitic acid (16:0) is added to protein cysteine residue by a covalent thioester bond. This modification plays an active role in membrane targeting of soluble proteins,...

  • Article
  • Open Access
1 Citations
2,990 Views
16 Pages

In the inner mitochondrial membrane, several potassium channels that play a role in cell life and death have been identified. One of these channels is the ATP-regulated potassium channel (mitoKATP). The ROMK2 potassium channel is a potential molecula...

  • Article
  • Open Access
11 Citations
4,247 Views
15 Pages

Effects of Porous Supports in Thin-Film Composite Membranes on CO2 Separation Performances

  • Hongfang Guo,
  • Wenqi Xu,
  • Jing Wei,
  • Yulei Ma,
  • Zikang Qin,
  • Zhongde Dai,
  • Jing Deng and
  • Liyuan Deng

Despite numerous publications on membrane materials and the fabrication of thin-film composite (TFC) membranes for CO2 separation in recent decades, the effects of porous supports on TFC membrane performance have rarely been reported, especially when...

  • Article
  • Open Access
5 Citations
2,995 Views
18 Pages

Clean Energy Based Multigeneration System for Sustainable Cities: Thermodynamic, and Stability Analyses

  • Uzair Bhatti,
  • Hamza Aamir,
  • Khurram Kamal,
  • Tahir Abdul Hussain Ratlamwala,
  • Fahad Alqahtani,
  • Mohammed Alkahtani,
  • Emad Mohammad and
  • Moath Alatefi

This paper concerns the development and analysis of multigeneration systems based on hybrid sources such as biomass and wind. Industry requires different types of sources to provide several outputs, so the goal of this research was to fulfill the ind...

  • Article
  • Open Access
26 Citations
3,933 Views
23 Pages

Novel MXene-Modified Polyphenyl Sulfone Membranes for Functional Nanofiltration of Heavy Metals-Containing Wastewater

  • Mohammed Azeez Naji,
  • Hamed Salimi-Kenari,
  • Qusay F. Alsalhy,
  • Raed A. Al-Juboori,
  • Ngoc Huynh,
  • Khalid T. Rashid and
  • Issam K. Salih

In this work, MXene as a hydrophilic 2D nanosheet has been suggested to tailor the polyphenylsulfone (PPSU) flat sheet membrane characteristics via bulk modification. The amount of MXene varied in the PPSU casting solution from 0–1.5 wt.%, whil...

  • Article
  • Open Access
4 Citations
2,771 Views
17 Pages

Physicochemical Characteristics of Model Membranes Composed of Legionella gormanii Lipids

  • Katarzyna Pastuszak,
  • Elżbieta Chmiel,
  • Bożena Kowalczyk,
  • Jacek Tarasiuk,
  • Małgorzata Jurak and
  • Marta Palusińska-Szysz

Legionella gormanii is one of the species belonging to the genus Legionella, which causes atypical community-acquired pneumonia. The most important virulence factors that enable the bacteria to colonize the host organism are associated with the cell...

  • Article
  • Open Access
20 Citations
3,581 Views
13 Pages

In this paper, the removal effect of reverse osmosis (RO) on three common pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs), including ibuprofen (IBU), carbamazepine (CBZ), and triclosan (TCS), were compared under different process conditions, and t...

  • Article
  • Open Access
7 Citations
2,891 Views
17 Pages

Batch pressure-retarded osmosis (PRO) with varied-pressure and multiple-cycle operation using a pressurized variable-volume tank has been proposed as a high-efficiency osmotic energy harvesting technology, but it suffers scalability constraints. In t...

  • Article
  • Open Access
2 Citations
2,716 Views
11 Pages

It is discovered that noncharged surfactants lead to electric effects that interact with biomimetic membranes made of nitrocellulose filters, which are impregnated with fatty acid esters. At a surfactant concentration as low as 64 microM in one of th...

  • Article
  • Open Access
6 Citations
5,149 Views
12 Pages

Electroformation of Giant Unilamellar Vesicles from Damp Lipid Films Formed by Vesicle Fusion

  • Zvonimir Boban,
  • Ivan Mardešić,
  • Sanja Perinović Jozić,
  • Josipa Šumanovac,
  • Witold Karol Subczynski and
  • Marija Raguz

Giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) are artificial membrane models which are of special interest to researchers because of their similarity in size to eukaryotic cells. The most commonly used method for GUVs production is electroformation. However, the...

  • Article
  • Open Access
9 Citations
3,740 Views
11 Pages

Using Tannic-Acid-Based Complex to Modify Polyacrylonitrile Hollow Fiber Membrane for Efficient Oil-In-Water Separation

  • Micah Belle Marie Yap Ang,
  • Wei-Lin Hsu,
  • You-Syuan Wang,
  • Hsin-Yu Kuo,
  • Hui-An Tsai and
  • Kueir-Rarn Lee

Separating oil from water allows us to reuse both fluids for various applications, leading to a more economical process. Membrane separation has been evidenced as a cost-effective process for wastewater treatment. A hollow fiber membrane made of poly...

  • Article
  • Open Access
3,111 Views
36 Pages

Interactions of N-Mannich Bases of Pyrrolo[3,4-c]pyrrole with Artificial Models of Cell Membranes and Plasma Proteins, Evaluation of Anti-Inflammatory and Antioxidant Activity

  • Łukasz Szczukowski,
  • Jadwiga Maniewska,
  • Benita Wiatrak,
  • Paulina Jawień,
  • Edward Krzyżak,
  • Aleksandra Kotynia,
  • Aleksandra Marciniak,
  • Maciej Janeczek and
  • Aleksandra Redzicka

Despite the widespread and easy access to NSAIDs, effective and safe treatment of various inflammatory disorders is still a serious challenge because of the severe adverse effects distinctive to these drugs. The Mannich base derivatives of pyrrolo[3,...

  • Article
  • Open Access
2 Citations
3,283 Views
26 Pages

Hydrogen Sulphide Sequestration with Metallic Ions in Acidic Media Based on Chitosan/sEPDM/Polypropylene Composites Hollow Fiber Membranes System

  • Dumitru Pașcu,
  • Aurelia Cristina Nechifor,
  • Vlad-Alexandru Grosu,
  • Ovidiu Cristian Oprea,
  • Szidonia-Katalin Tanczos,
  • Geani Teodor Man,
  • Florina Dumitru,
  • Alexandra Raluca Grosu and
  • Gheorghe Nechifor

This paper presents the preparation and characterization of composite membranes based on chitosan (Chi), sulfonated ethylene–propylene–diene terpolymer (sEPDM), and polypropylene (PPy), and designed to capture hydrogen sulfide. The Chi/sE...

  • Article
  • Open Access
41 Citations
14,239 Views
17 Pages

Analysis of PEM Water Electrolyzer Failure Due to Induced Hydrogen Crossover in Catalyst-Coated PFSA Membranes

  • Eveline Kuhnert,
  • Mathias Heidinger,
  • Daniel Sandu,
  • Viktor Hacker and
  • Merit Bodner

Polymer electrolyte membrane water electrolysis (PEMWE) is a leading candidate for the development of a sustainable hydrogen infrastructure. The heart of a PEMWE cell is represented by the membrane electrode assembly (MEA), which consists of a polyme...

  • Article
  • Open Access
5 Citations
2,472 Views
24 Pages

In this paper, we propose an optimized protocol to synthesize reproducible, accurate, sustainable integrally skinned monophasic hybrid cellulose acetate/silica membranes for ultrafiltration. Eight different membrane compositions were studied, divided...

  • Article
  • Open Access
9 Citations
3,392 Views
26 Pages

Donnan Dialysis for Recovering Ammonium from Fermentation Solutions Rich in Volatile Fatty Acids

  • Kayo Santana Barros,
  • Mónica Carvalheira,
  • Bruno Costa Marreiros,
  • Maria Ascensão M. Reis,
  • João Goulão Crespo,
  • Valentín Pérez-Herranz and
  • Svetlozar Velizarov

For the production of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) using nitrogen-rich feedstocks (e.g., protein-rich resources), the typical strategy of restricting cell growth as a means to enhance overall PHA productivity by nitrogen limitation is not applicable....

  • Article
  • Open Access
8 Citations
4,015 Views
18 Pages

A novel natural phosphate/graphene oxide (GO) composite membrane was successfully fabricated using two steps: (i) silane chemical grafting and (ii) dip-coating of a GO solution. First, the low-cost disk ceramic support used in this work was fabricate...

  • Article
  • Open Access
8 Citations
3,872 Views
20 Pages

COVID-19, caused by SARS-CoV-2, which is a positive-sense, single-stranded RNA enveloped virus, emerged in late 2019 and was declared a worldwide pandemic in early 2020 causing more than 600 million infections so far and more than 6 million deaths in...

  • Review
  • Open Access
45 Citations
6,600 Views
30 Pages

Potential of Lipid-Based Nanocarriers against Two Major Barriers to Drug Delivery—Skin and Blood–Brain Barrier

  • Mohammad Sameer Khan,
  • Sradhanjali Mohapatra,
  • Vaibhav Gupta,
  • Ahsan Ali,
  • Punnoth Poonkuzhi Naseef,
  • Mohamed Saheer Kurunian,
  • Abdulkhaliq Ali F. Alshadidi,
  • Md Shamsher Alam,
  • Mohd. Aamir Mirza and
  • Zeenat Iqbal

Over the past few years, pharmaceutical and biomedical areas have made the most astounding accomplishments in the field of medicine, diagnostics and drug delivery. Nanotechnology-based tools have played a major role in this. The implementation of thi...

  • Article
  • Open Access
8 Citations
3,762 Views
16 Pages

Features of the Degradation of the Proton-Conducting Polymer Nafion in Highly Porous Electrodes of PEM Fuel Cells

  • Andrey A. Nechitailov,
  • Polina Volovitch,
  • Nadezhda V. Glebova and
  • Anna Krasnova

The stability of new membrane–electrode assemblies of a proton-exchange membrane fuel cell with highly porous electrodes and low Pt loading, based on the proton-conducting polymer Nafion, was characterized in conditions of electrochemical aging...

  • Article
  • Open Access
8 Citations
2,625 Views
21 Pages

Novel Inorganic Membranes Based on Magnetite-Containing Silica Porous Glasses for Ultrafiltration: Structure and Sorption Properties

  • Marina Konon,
  • Elena Yu. Brazovskaya,
  • Valery Kreisberg,
  • Ekaterina Semenova,
  • Irina G. Polyakova,
  • Armenak Osipov and
  • Tatiana Antropova

Porous glasses (PGs) obtained from sodium borosilicate (NBS) phase-separated glasses via leaching are promising inorganic membranes. Introducing Fe2O3 into NBS glasses imparts ferrimagnetic properties due to magnetite crystallization. Leaching of suc...

  • Article
  • Open Access
1 Citations
1,979 Views
12 Pages

Membrane filtration methods were applied in this study to research natural waters specification (and speciation). Lysimetric waters (soil waters) of background territories in different seasons are considered. Features of the change in molecular weigh...

  • Article
  • Open Access
11 Citations
5,469 Views
15 Pages

Techno-Economic Analysis of Vacuum Membrane Distillation for Seawater Desalination

  • Hassaan Idrees,
  • Sara Ali,
  • Muhammad Sajid,
  • Muhammad Rashid,
  • Fahad Iqbal Khawaja,
  • Zaib Ali and
  • Muhammad Nabeel Anwar

Seawater desalination is an affordable and viable solution to the growing freshwater scarcity problem in water scarce regions. The current study focuses on cost analysis of Vacuum Membrane Distillation (VMD) setup for removing salts from water. The m...

  • Review
  • Open Access
26 Citations
6,849 Views
22 Pages

Obtaining fresh drinking water is a challenge directly related to the change in agricultural, industrial, and societal demands and pressure. Therefore, the sustainable treatment of saline water to get clean water is a major requirement for human surv...

  • Article
  • Open Access
22 Citations
4,361 Views
21 Pages

Polydimethylsiloxane/Magnesium Oxide Nanosheet Mixed Matrix Membrane for CO2 Separation Application

  • Muhd Izzudin Fikry Zainuddin,
  • Abdul Latif Ahmad and
  • Meor Muhammad Hafiz Shah Buddin

Carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration is now 50% higher than in the preindustrial period and efforts to reduce CO2 emission through carbon capture and utilization (CCU) are blooming. Membranes are one of the attractive alternatives for such application....

  • Article
  • Open Access
13 Citations
8,736 Views
14 Pages

As the semiconductor industry has grown tremendously over the last decades, its environmental impact has become a growing concern, including the withdrawal of fresh water and the generation of harmful wastewater. Tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH),...

  • Article
  • Open Access
7 Citations
2,104 Views
16 Pages

Inflammatory cells mount an immune response against in vitro engineered cartilage implanted into immunocompetent animals, consequently limiting the usage of tissue-engineered cartilage to repair cartilage defects. In this study, curcumin (Cur)—an ant...

  • Article
  • Open Access
4 Citations
2,735 Views
14 Pages

This paper presents an analysis of the fouling of a ceramic membrane by a mixture containing high concentrations of humic acid and colloidal silica during cross-flow ultrafiltration under various operating conditions. Two types of feed water were tes...

  • Article
  • Open Access
7 Citations
3,292 Views
12 Pages

Enhancing Hydrogen Sulfide Detection at Room Temperature Using ZIF-67-Chitosan Membrane

  • Ashraf Ali,
  • Ahmed Alzamly,
  • Yaser E. Greish,
  • Reem H. Alzard,
  • Hesham F. El-Maghraby,
  • Naser Qamhieh and
  • Saleh T. Mahmoud

Developing new materials for energy and environment-related applications is a critical research field. In this context, organic and metal–organic framework (MOF) materials are a promising solution for sensing hazardous gases and saving energy....

  • Communication
  • Open Access
2 Citations
2,062 Views
8 Pages

A Note on Vestigial Osmotic Pressure

  • Hao Wu,
  • Zhong-Can Ou-Yang and
  • Rudolf Podgornik

Recent experiments have indicated that at least a part of the osmotic pressure across the giant unilamellar vesicle (GUV) membrane was balanced by the rapid formation of the monodisperse daughter vesicles inside the GUVs through an endocytosis-like p...

  • Article
  • Open Access
19 Citations
3,851 Views
25 Pages

Optimization of Small-Scale Hydrogen Production with Membrane Reactors

  • Michele Ongis,
  • Gioele Di Marcoberardino,
  • Mattia Baiguini,
  • Fausto Gallucci and
  • Marco Binotti

In the pathway towards decarbonization, hydrogen can provide valid support in different sectors, such as transportation, iron and steel industries, and domestic heating, concurrently reducing air pollution. Thanks to its versatility, hydrogen can be...

  • Article
  • Open Access
4 Citations
2,813 Views
15 Pages

Lactic acid (LA) is an important chemical material facing rapid demand in recent years. The oriented fermentation of kitchen waste is a promising route for economic LA production. However, the refinement of LA from fermentation broth is a spiny issue...

  • Article
  • Open Access
14 Citations
3,866 Views
16 Pages

Anion exchange membranes (AEM) are core components for alkaline electrochemical energy technologies, such as water electrolysis and fuel cells. They are regarded as promising alternatives for proton exchange membranes (PEM) due to the possibility of...

  • Article
  • Open Access
4 Citations
4,384 Views
16 Pages

Experimental Study and Modeling of Beer Dealcoholization via Reverse Osmosis

  • Áron Varga,
  • Eszter Bihari-Lucena,
  • Márta Ladányi,
  • Beatrix Szabó-Nótin,
  • Ildikó Galambos and
  • András Koris

The goals of the present investigation are to study and to model pale lager beer dealcoholization via reverse osmosis (RO). Samples were dealcoholized at a temperature of 15 ± 1 °C. An Alfa Laval RO99 membrane with a 0.05 m2 surface was us...

  • Article
  • Open Access
5 Citations
2,027 Views
12 Pages

Supported liquid membranes have been used to implement a hollow fibre liquid-phase microextraction (HF-LPME) method for the preconcentration of Cd(II) in natural waters as a sample preparation step for its determination by high-resolution continuum s...

  • Article
  • Open Access
13 Citations
3,658 Views
14 Pages

Green Method for the Selective Electromembrane Extraction of Parabens and Fluoroquinolones in the Presence of NSAIDs by Using Biopolymeric Chitosan Films

  • Cristina Román-Hidalgo,
  • María Jesús Martín-Valero,
  • Germán López-Pérez and
  • Mercedes Villar-Navarro

A chitosan biopolymeric membrane was successfully used as a support in a green electromembrane extraction procedure for the simultaneous and selective extraction of seven parabens and three fluoroquinolones in the presence of three non-steroidal anti...

  • Feature Paper
  • Article
  • Open Access
9 Citations
4,392 Views
13 Pages

Circular Economy Approach in Treatment of Galvanic Wastewater Employing Membrane Processes

  • Anna Kowalik-Klimczak,
  • Anna Gajewska-Midziałek,
  • Zofia Buczko,
  • Monika Łożyńska,
  • Maciej Życki,
  • Wioletta Barszcz,
  • Tinatin Ciciszwili,
  • Adrian Dąbrowski,
  • Sonia Kasierot and
  • Tadeusz Gorewoda
  • + 1 author

According to the idea of sustainable development, humanity should make every effort to care for the natural environment along with economic development. Decreasing water resources in the world makes it necessary to take action to reduce the consumpti...

  • Article
  • Open Access
7 Citations
2,611 Views
10 Pages

Analysis of Microbial Communities in Membrane Biofilm Reactors Using a High-Density Microarray

  • Shilong Li,
  • Liang Duan,
  • Yang Zhao,
  • Fu Gao and
  • Slawomir W. Hermanowicz

Membrane biofilm reactors (MBfRs) have attracted more and more attention in the field of wastewater treatment due to their advantages of high mass transfer efficiency and low-carbon emissions. There are many factors affecting their nitrogen removal a...

  • Article
  • Open Access
4 Citations
2,563 Views
17 Pages

Techniques that can probe nanometer length scales, such as small-angle neutron scattering (SANS), have become increasingly popular to detect phase separation in membranes. But to extract the phase composition and domain structure from the SANS traces...

  • Article
  • Open Access
18 Citations
4,504 Views
18 Pages

Salinity gradient energy has gained attention in recent years as a renewable energy source, especially employing reverse electrodialysis technology (RED), which is based on the role of ion exchange membranes. In this context, many efforts have been d...

  • Article
  • Open Access
24 Citations
3,836 Views
22 Pages

The wastewater generated as a result of car washes is considered a new source of water. However, recovered water must meet the required quality criteria for reuse. For this purpose, the ultrafiltration (UF) process can be successfully used. The main...

  • Review
  • Open Access
12 Citations
6,616 Views
21 Pages

Membrane Models and Experiments Suitable for Studies of the Cholesterol Bilayer Domains

  • Ivan Mardešić,
  • Zvonimir Boban,
  • Witold Karol Subczynski and
  • Marija Raguz

Cholesterol (Chol) is an essential component of animal cell membranes and is most abundant in plasma membranes (PMs) where its concentration typically ranges from 10 to 30 mol%. However, in red blood cells and Schwann cells, PMs Chol content is as hi...

  • Article
  • Open Access
5 Citations
2,870 Views
19 Pages

Impact of Physical and Chemical Modification of the Surface of Porous Al2O3 Ceramic Membranes on the Quality of Transferred HSMG® and CVD Graphene

  • Aleksandra Bednarek,
  • Konrad Dybowski,
  • Grzegorz Romaniak,
  • Jacek Grabarczyk,
  • Witold Kaczorowski and
  • Anna Sobczyk-Guzenda

Graphene transfer onto ceramics, like Si/SiO2, is well-developed and described in the literature. However, it is problematic for other ceramic materials (e.g., Al2O3 and ZrO2), especially porous ones. In this case, it is mainly due to poor adhesion t...

  • Article
  • Open Access
12 Citations
2,696 Views
26 Pages

Membrane separation technology for CO2 capture in pre-combustion has the advantages of easy operation, minimal land use and no pollution and is considered a reliable alternative to traditional technology. However, previous studies only focused on the...

  • Article
  • Open Access
23 Citations
4,920 Views
17 Pages

Nanoparticle-Enhanced PVDF Flat-Sheet Membranes for Seawater Desalination in Direct Contact Membrane Distillation

  • Indira Chimanlal,
  • Lebea N. Nthunya,
  • Oranso T. Mahlangu,
  • Bastian Kirkebæk,
  • Aamer Ali,
  • Cejna A. Quist-Jensen and
  • Heidi Richards

In this study, hydrophobic functionalized carbon nanotubes (fCNTs) and silica nanoparticles (fSiO2NPs) were incorporated into polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) flat-sheet membranes to improve their performance in membrane distillation (MD). The performa...

  • Article
  • Open Access
9 Citations
3,585 Views
20 Pages

Combined cycle power plants (CCPPs) use large amounts of water withdrawn from nearby rivers and generate wastewater containing ions and pollutants. Despite the need for wastewater reclamation, few technologies can successfully convert the wastewater...

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Membranes - ISSN 2077-0375