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Women’s Special Issue Series: Membrane Materials and Applications
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Women’s Special Issue Series: Membrane Materials and Applications

A special issue of Membranes (ISSN 2077-0375).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (10 May 2024) | Viewed by 11240

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Isabel C. Escobar

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506, USA
Interests: developing and/or improving polymeric membrane materials for water treatment and water reuse applications
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Women have been underrepresented as first, last, and corresponding authors in prominent authorship positions. Furthermore, according to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, only 30% of the world's scientific researchers identify as female. Attention should be drawn to the continued imbalance in female representation until parity can be reached. Membranes is proud to present our "Women's Special Issue Series: Membrane Materials and Applications", aimed at celebrating the achievements of women in membrane science and technology. The scope of Special Issue includes all aspects of topics in membrane material and application science.

Prof. Dr. Isabel C. Escobar
Guest Editor

Women’s Special Issue Series

This Special Issue is part of Membranes's Women’s Special Issue Series, hosted by women editors for women researchers. The Series advocates the advancement of women in science. We invite contributions to the Special Issue whose lead authors identify as women. The submission of articles with all-women authorship is especially encouraged. However, we do welcome articles from all authors, irrespective of gender.

The Membranes editorial office is also proud to announce one award "Membranes 2023 Early Career-Women Award" in the journal to reward the achievements of young female scientist in membrane science and technology.

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 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.

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  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
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  • Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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19 pages, 6320 KiB  
Article
Nanostructured Affinity Membrane to Isolate Extracellular Vesicles from Body Fluids for Diagnostics and Regenerative Medicine
by Monica Torsello, Margherita Animini, Chiara Gualandi, Francesca Perut, Antonino Pollicino, Cristiana Boi and Maria Letizia Focarete
Membranes 2024, 14(10), 206; https://doi.org/10.3390/membranes14100206 - 26 Sep 2024
Viewed by 1336
Abstract
Electrospun regenerated cellulose (RC) nanofiber membranes were prepared starting from cellulose acetate (CA) with different degrees of substitution. The process was optimized to obtain continuous and uniformly sized CA fibers. After electrospinning, the CA membranes were heat-treated to increase their tensile strength before [...] Read more.
Electrospun regenerated cellulose (RC) nanofiber membranes were prepared starting from cellulose acetate (CA) with different degrees of substitution. The process was optimized to obtain continuous and uniformly sized CA fibers. After electrospinning, the CA membranes were heat-treated to increase their tensile strength before deacetylation to obtain regenerated cellulose (RC). Affinity membranes were obtained by functionalization, exploiting the hydroxyl groups on the cellulose backbone. 1,4-Butanediol-diglycidyl ether was used to introduce epoxy groups onto the membrane, which was further bioconjugated with the anti-CD63 antibody targeting the tetraspanin CD63 on the extracellular vesicle membrane surface. The highest ligand density was obtained with an anti-CD63 antibody concentration of 6.4 µg/mL when bioconjugation was performed in carbonate buffer. The resulting affinity membrane was tested for the adsorption of extracellular vesicles (EVs) from human platelet lysate, yielding a very promising binding capacity above 10 mg/mL and demonstrating the suitability of this approach. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Women’s Special Issue Series: Membrane Materials and Applications)
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16 pages, 4078 KiB  
Article
Chemically Stable Styrenic Electrospun Membranes with Tailorable Surface Chemistry
by Maura Sepesy, Tuli Banik, Joelle Scott, Luke A. F. Venturina, Alec Johnson, Bernadette L. Schneider, Megan M. Sibley and Christine E. Duval
Membranes 2023, 13(11), 870; https://doi.org/10.3390/membranes13110870 - 2 Nov 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2773
Abstract
Membranes with tailorable surface chemistry have applications in a wide range of industries. Synthesizing membranes from poly(chloromethyl styrene) directly incorporates an alkyl halide surface-bound initiator which can be used to install functional groups via SN2 chemistry or graft polymerization techniques. In [...] Read more.
Membranes with tailorable surface chemistry have applications in a wide range of industries. Synthesizing membranes from poly(chloromethyl styrene) directly incorporates an alkyl halide surface-bound initiator which can be used to install functional groups via SN2 chemistry or graft polymerization techniques. In this work, poly(chloromethyl styrene) membranes were synthesized through electrospinning. After fabrication, membranes were crosslinked with a diamine, and the chemical resistance of the membranes was evaluated by exposure to 10 M nitric acid, ethanol, or tetrahydrofuran for 24 h. The resulting membranes had diameters on the order of 2–5 microns, porosities of >80%, and permeance on the order of 10,000 L/m2/h/bar. Crosslinking the membranes generally increased the chemical stability. The degree of crosslinking was approximated using elemental analysis for nitrogen and ranged from 0.5 to 0.9 N%. The poly(chloromethyl styrene) membrane with the highest degree of crosslinking did not dissolve in THF after 24 h and retained its high permeance after solvent exposure. The presented chemically resistant membranes can serve as a platform technology due to their versatile surface chemistry and can be used in membrane manufacturing techniques that require the membrane to be contacted with organic solvents or monomers. They can also serve as a platform for separations that are performed in strong acids. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Women’s Special Issue Series: Membrane Materials and Applications)
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Review

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30 pages, 6389 KiB  
Review
Design Strategies for Forward Osmosis Membrane Substrates with Low Structural Parameters—A Review
by KmProttoy Shariar Piash and Oishi Sanyal
Membranes 2023, 13(1), 73; https://doi.org/10.3390/membranes13010073 - 7 Jan 2023
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 4968
Abstract
This article reviews the many innovative strategies that have been developed to specifically design the support layers of forward osmosis (FO) membranes. Forward osmosis (FO) is one of the most viable separation technologies to treat hypersaline wastewater, but its successful deployment requires the [...] Read more.
This article reviews the many innovative strategies that have been developed to specifically design the support layers of forward osmosis (FO) membranes. Forward osmosis (FO) is one of the most viable separation technologies to treat hypersaline wastewater, but its successful deployment requires the development of new membrane materials beyond existing desalination membranes. Specifically, designing the FO membrane support layers requires new engineering techniques to minimize the internal concentration polarization (ICP) effects encountered in cases of FO. In this paper, we have reviewed several such techniques developed by different research groups and summarized the membrane transport properties corresponding to each approach. An important transport parameter that helps to compare the various approaches is the so-called structural parameter (S-value); a low S-value typically corresponds to low ICP. Strategies such as electrospinning, solvent casting, and hollow fiber spinning, have been developed by prior researchers—all of them aimed at lowering this S-value. We also reviewed the quantitative methods described in the literature, to evaluate the separation properties of FO membranes. Lastly, we have highlighted some key research gaps, and provided suggestions for potential strategies that researchers could adopt to enable easy comparison of FO membranes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Women’s Special Issue Series: Membrane Materials and Applications)
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