Next-Generation Functional Membranes for Energy, Environment, and Biomedicine

Dear Colleagues,

Membrane science has entered an exciting new era, where the convergence of advanced materials, nanotechnology, and interdisciplinary applications is reshaping the role of membranes in both fundamental research and industrial practice. Membranes are no longer limited to traditional separation processes—they are becoming multifunctional platforms that enable energy conversion, environmental remediation, biomedical treatment, and smart sensing.

The global challenges of climate change, water scarcity, and the growing demand for sustainable healthcare highlight the urgent need for next-generation membranes that combine high efficiency, durability, and functionality. This Special Issue will provide a timely platform to showcase recent advances, foster international collaboration, and accelerate the translation of membrane technologies into real-world solutions.

This Special Issue, “Next-Generation Functional Membranes for Energy, Environment, and Biomedicine”, aims to gather contributions that highlight innovative strategies in membrane design, fabrication, characterization, and application. Of particular interest are studies that address the following topics:

• Advanced membrane materials (novel 2D materials, functionalized polymers, hybrid composites, nanostructured membranes with tunable selectivity and permeability).
• Energy applications (membranes for hydrogen production, fuel cells, and redox-flow batteries, electrochemical separations and electrodialysis for sustainable energy systems).
• Environmental applications (water purification and desalination, removal of emerging contaminants such as pharmaceuticals, dyes, and microplastics, membranes for circular economy and resource recovery).
• Biomedical and pharmaceutical applications (membranes for dialysis, artificial organs, and biosensors, drug delivery systems, and stimuli-responsive membranes for precision medicine).
• Smart and integrated membranes (responsive membranes activated by pH, temperature, light, electric field, integration with digital monitoring, sensing, and data-driven process control).

This Special Issue aims to highlight the interdisciplinary role of membranes in tackling global challenges related to energy, the environment, and healthcare. It aims to provide a platform for presenting novel materials, scalable fabrication techniques, and emerging applications, while also stimulating collaboration among chemists, materials scientists, engineers, and biomedical researchers. Furthermore, the Special Issue intends to identify future directions and research gaps that can guide the development of next-generation functional membranes.

In summary, this Special Issue will serve as a hub for researchers working across diverse disciplines, providing insights into the latest advances and future perspectives of membrane technologies. We warmly invite authors to contribute original research articles, reviews, and case studies that reflect the state-of-the-art in functional membranes and their applications.

Dr. Anna Nowik-Zaja̧c
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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 2200 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.