Inorganic and Hybrid Membranes

Dear colleagues,

Compared to organic membranes, inorganic membranes potentially offer superior mechanical, chemical, and thermal stability. They can exhibit very high selectivity and permeance for specific molecules and can maintain their functionality in very demanding conditions. Examples of inorganic membranes’ applications include molecular sieving at elevated temperatures and in highly compressed or corrosive fluids. A broad range of inorganic membrane materials is available, including metal oxides, other ceramics, and metals. Frequently used membrane materials are silica, titania, zirconia, pervoskites, zeolites, and palladium.

The versatility of inorganic membranes can be greatly extended by combining both inorganic and organic (or biological) constituents in a single material. Recently, enormous progress has been reported for the synthesis of such hybrid membranes. For example, in the context of interpenetrating networks, sol-gel derived organo-silica membranes and porous ceramics with organic functionalization (of the internal pore surface) have been created. Similarly, great progress has been reported for nano-composite and metal organic frameworks. For both inorganic and hybrid membranes, major breakthroughs can be expected in the understanding of structure-chemistry-performance relations, in materials design, and in the simplification and cost reduction of their fabrication. These breakthroughs will eventually enable the economically-viable, large-scale production of future generations of membranes with properties tailored for highly effective molecular separation under demanding conditions.

This Special Issue offers a perfect forum for documenting state-of-the-art developments and innovations in the field of inorganic and hybrid membranes. Authors are therefore invited to submit their latest results; both original papers and reviews are welcome.

Nieck E. Benes
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.

• inorganic membrane
• hybrid membrane
• nano-composite
• metal-organic-framework (MOF)
• (organo)silica
• palladium
• surface grafting
• titania
• zeolite
• zirconia