Nanofiltration (NF) membranes hold significant value in industrial wastewater treatment and resource recovery. This is due to their nanoscale pore size and charge-selective mechanism. In lithium-ion battery recycling, electrode leachates contain lithium sulfate and divalent metal sulfates.To achieve selective separation of these components, a novel composite NF membrane was prepared. The preparation involves synergistic grafting modification using quaternary ammonium compound and glycerol ether both containing the epoxy group. The findings indicate that aldehyde compounds can suppress the diffusion of polyamines. Consequently, the polyamide separation layer retains more unreacted amine groups. This can promote crosslinking with epoxy groups and achieve high-density grafting of quaternary ammonium compound. As a result, the positive charge density on the NF membrane surface is enhanced. Meanwhile, the crosslinking of glycidyl ether reduces the intermolecular pore size of the selective layer. Through the synergistic effect of charge and pore size, the developed NF membrane exhibits high rejection rates of Mn/Ni/CoSO4 higher than 90

Alkaline wastewater is widely generated across industries such as textiles, pulp and paper, mining, petrochemicals, and semiconductors, raising concerns over environmental impact and resource recovery. Conventional neutralization using acids is energy-intensive, costly, and primarily aimed at contaminant removal, with minimal focus on resource recovery. Membrane-based processes, namely ultrafiltration (UF), nanofiltration (NF), and reverse osmosis (RO), have emerged as promising alternatives due to their high selectivity, scalability, and lower energy requirements. However, conventional membrane materials such as polyamide undergo hydrolysis under extreme pH conditions, which limits their practical application in alkaline environments. Recent advancements have focused on engineering alkali-resistant membranes through innovative materials and structural designs, including polyurea, poly(urea-thiourea) layers, graphene oxide composites, microporous polymers and polyelectrolyte membranes. These technologies have demonstrated success in applications such as dye/salt separation, lignin recovery, heavy metal removal, and purification of semiconductor wastewater. Nonetheless, key challenges persist in balancing chemical durability, water permeance, fouling resistance, and cost-effectiveness. This review classifies the principal alkaline degradation pathways and correlates them with the corresponding stabilization strategies used across major membrane classes as well as provides a comparative critical analysis of the strengths, limitations, and application scope. Finally, future research directions are discussed from the perspective of realistic durability assessment, process-specific membrane design, and industrial relevance.

Facing limited lithium supply and rising demand, exploring diverse and economical lithium resources is key to easing pressure. Oilfield brine, with low land and freshwater use for lithium extraction, offers great potential. However, developing stable granular adsorbents with high adsorption capacity and selectivity for oilfield brine with an ultrahigh Na+/Li+ ratio is highly significant. Herein, hydrophilic polyacrylonitrile (PAN)/ Li1.33Mn1.67O4 (LMO)-based granules were prepared by straightforward nonsolvent-induced phase separation. Meanwhile, polyethylenimine (PEI) was modified to PAN binder and the obtained PANP-LMO granules exhibit a highly interconnected three-dimensional network. The load capacity of LMO reached up to 87%, which was helpful for excellent adsorption performance. Notably, the adsorption capacity reached 17.4 mg/g. Moreover, PANP-LMO showed enhanced selectivity toward Li+ (distribution factor K d = 15006 mL/g) over other coexisting cations, with a separation factor of alpha Na Li = 12695, alpha Mg Li = 5919, surpassing those of previously reported adsorbents. Theoretical calculations indicated that abundant amino groups from PEI effectively improved the selectivity of Li+ toward other cations. When used in Zhongyuan oilfield brine, the lithium adsorption efficiency was 98.7%, with the Na+/Li+ ratio descending to 4.5 from 2,316, the Mg2+/Li+ ratio descending to 0.1 from 19.5. This suggests that the adsorbent's performance remained unaffected in the real brine with ultrahigh M n+/Li+ ratio. These findings collectively indicate that PANP-LMO granules could present a competitive option for industrial processes.

Liquid hydrocarbons separation membrane is an efficient technical approach for the refined separation of high-value petrochemical products. Different from the traditional solute-solvent separation system, liquid hydrocarbon separation belongs to the solvent-solvent homogeneous separation system, which requires precise separation of non-polar hydrocarbon molecules with highly similar molecular sizes, carbon numbers and polarities. It imposes strict requirements on the pore structure uniformity, stability, and long-term solvent swelling resistance of membranes. Compared with existing reviews that mainly summarize organic solvent separation membranes, this review focuses specifically on liquid hydrocarbon systems and highlights the requirements for high-performance membrane design. Recent advances are summarized from three coupled perspectives: molecular-level regulation for solvent resistance, nanoscale pore-structure control for selectivity, and membrane-structure optimization for permeance. Representative strategies, including intrinsically solvent-resistant polymers, crosslinked networks, ordered porous frameworks, macrocycle-based channels, and ultrathin hydrophobic selective layers, are discussed in relation to the trade-offs among stability, selectivity, and permeance. Moreover, combined with the practical demands of industrial production, the core technical difficulties and research priorities in industrial application scenarios are analyzed, and future research directions suitable for industrialization and landing are clarified. This review aims to provide a theoretical reference for the subsequent research of liquid hydrocarbon separation membranes and promote the conversion of fundamental membrane separation theories and technologies into large-scale and industrial applications.

Emulsified oils and organic dyes as contaminants are widely distributed in generated wastewater from printing and dyeing industry, posing threats to the ecological environment and human health. Recently, filter membranes with hydrophilic separation layers have been broadly developed for oil-water separation. However, the frequent membrane fouling and exposure to acidic/alkaline environments significantly deteriorate the separation performance of membrane. Here, a stable membrane based on polyaniline is presented for high-efficient removal of emulsified oils and dyes from wastewater. Commercial hydrophobic microfiltration membrane was modified by poly(vinyl alcohol-co-ethylene) to increase the 3,3'-diaminobenzidine adsorption for in-situ polymerization. By polymerization to form hydrophilic polyaniline layers and reacting with polyvinyl pyrrolidone, the as-prepared membranes exhibit hydrophilicity and underwater superoleophobicity, and high-efficient treatments for oil-inwater emulsions and dye solutions. Even after multi-cycle separation, continuous separation for 60 min, or immersing into 20 wt% HCl /10 wt% NaOH solution for 14 days, the treated membranes still maintain high separation efficiencies and relatively stable fluxes for oil-in-water emulsions and dye solutions, showing excellent antifouling and acid/alkali-resistant performances. This study provides a promising guidance for high-efficient removal of emulsified oils and dyes from wastewater in harsh conditions.

Membranes that can overcome the permeance-selectivity trade-off are highly desirable for gas separations. Composite membranes have attracted increasing attention by integrating the excellent properties of various single-layer materials. In this work, we report a series of composite membranes with an MOF-based porous liquid (PL) layer, a PIM-1-polyurethane (PU) layer, and a polyacrylonitrile (PAN) substrate for effective CO2 capture. The synergistic effect arising from the fast screening channels of the PIM-1-PU polymer layer and the high selectivity of the PL layer induced by enhanced CO2 adsorption endows the resulting membranes with excellent CO2/H2 separation performance. The obtained ZIF-8@[bmim][Tf2N]/PIM-1-PU membrane exhibits a high CO2 permeance of 32 GPU and a CO2/H2 selectivity of 14.6 with a binary CO2/H2 (50/50, v/v) mixture at room temperature, surpassing the 2008 Robeson upper bound. Furthermore, the membrane maintains its stability after 100 h of stability testing as well as a high-pressure testing of 500 kPa. This research provides insights into the strategic design of porous liquid-based composite membranes for advanced gas separation.

With the booming development of wearable system, the flexible fiber-shaped supercapacitor (FSC) has received sufficient attention. However, impeding by the sinuous electrolyte diffusion pathway and limited surface area, the fiber electrode usually causes low energy density and mediocre rate capability. Here, small-sized Ti3C2Tx MXene (s-M) intercalated Ti3C2Tx flakes (s-M/M) fiber is constructed by microfluidic spinning method. Encouragingly, the existence of s-M flakes can prevent the layer restacking of adjacent Ti3C2Tx sheets significantly, constructing porous architectures for fast ion diffusion and exposing abundant active sites for ion adsorption. Moreover, due to homogeneous crosslink via hydrogen bond, s-M/M fiber appears stable interface coupling, which imparts fast electron migration and excellent deformation endurance. As a result, the s-M/M fiber displays huge mass-capacitance (271.35Fg-1 at 1Ag-1), good rate performance (197.92Fg-1 at 10Ag-1) and outstanding long-term cycling properties (80.7% capacitance retention after 10000 cycling). More importantly, matching with the graphene fiber, the asymmetrical FSC shows large capacitance of 62.98Fg-1 at 0.1Ag-1, high energy density and favorable deformation ability. This work raises an effective strategy for the design of high-performance FSC and the application in wearable system.

To address the critical challenge of lithium extraction from high Mg2+/Li+ ratio brines, this study develops a high-performance separation membrane through synergistic regulation of binary and ternary acyl chloride monomers combined with a bis-quaternary ammonium salt surface modification strategy. Optimizing the ratio of terephthaloyl chloride (TPC) to trimesoyl chloride (TMC) facilitates the formation of a periodic stripe Turing structure on the piperazine-based polyamide membrane's surface, markedly increasing the effective permeation area and water flux. The study reveals that adjusting the TPC ratio finely tunes the polyamide network's crosslinking density, thereby affecting the size exclusion effect. Additionally, TPC incorporation, by diminishing surface carboxyl density, enhances the membrane's surface positive charge, significantly improving its Li+ permeability and Mg2+ rejection capabilities. The optimized TPC-20 membrane demonstrates exceptional ion selectivity, achieving a MgCl2 rejection of 91.3 %, a LiCl rejection of 11.3 %, and a water flux of 61 LMH. Further enhancement via amino-terminated bis-quaternary ammonium salt (ATBAS) grafting achieves 98.7 % Mg2+ rejection, a record Li+ negative rejection of -37.3 %, and a Mg2+/Li+ selectivity of 105.1. Extended testing for 120 h verifies the membrane's reliable performance, highlighting its potential for industrial application. This research provides an efficient and energy-saving membrane separation solution for lithium extraction from brines.

As a significant biogenic volatile organic compound, cis-3-hexen-1-ol (cis-HXO) has garnered considerable attention. The mechanisms and kinetics of OH-induced degradation of cis-HXO were investigated at the M06-2x/ 6-311 + G(3df,2p)//M06-2x/6-311 + G(d,p) level. P1 and P3 are the main products. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulation results indicate that P1 and P3 can form large aggregates with sulfuric acid (SA) molecules within 20 ns. Under conditions of 298 K and 1 atm, the total rate constant is 1.01 x 10- 10 cm3 molecule- 1 s- 1, and the corresponding lifetime is 2.75 h. This study offers theoretical insights into the degradation of cis-HXO by OH radicals, and its findings enhance our understanding of the fate of cis-HXO in the atmosphere.

Carbon-based fibers have received sufficient attentions and acquired extensive success in wearable energy storage devices on account of excellent conductivity, porous structure and outstanding flexibility. Herein, hierarchically porous reduced graphene oxide (rGO)/carbon nanotube (CNT) /SnO2 (GCS) aerogel fiber was fabricated via freeze-drying treatment followed wet spinning method. Moreover, owing to the porous structure, high conductivity and synergistic effect, the proof-of-concept GCS fiber-based lithium-ion battery possesses affirmative mass capacitance (1053.4 mA h/g at 0.1 A g- 1), rate performance (357.7 mA h/g at 5 A g- 1) and long-term cycling stability (553.4 mAh/g capacity retention for 500 cycles at 2 A g- 1), which provides a booming future in the preparation of microminiaturization device for next-generation wearable electronics.

Increasing the acid stability and selectivity of nanofiltration (NF) membranes, which are used to treat acidic industrial effluents, is highly beneficial. A series of acid-stable NF membranes featuring polysulfonamide (PSA) separation layers were prepared through interfacial polymerization of branched polyethyleneimine (PEI), polyethylenepolyamine (PPA), and 1,3-benzenedisulfonyl chloride (BDSC) on a porous polyethersulfone (PES) substrate. The optimization of the membrane filtration performance involved analyzing the monomer content in both the aqueous and organic phases and adjusting the PEI-to-PPA ratio, thereby preparing ultrathin PSA layers. The influence of the PSA morphology and structure on the membrane filtration performance was examined. The most effectively optimized sample demonstrated a MgSO4 rejection rate of 95.4 +/- 0.4 % and a water flux of 55.4 +/- 1 L m-2h- 1 at a pressure of 2.0 MPa. The acid stability of the membrane was assessed by examining the permeation, separation, and physicochemical properties before and after undergoing static acid-soaking tests. Following a 5-month exposure to 20 % (w/v) HCl or 20 % (w/v) H2SO4 aqueous solution, the optimal membrane maintained a MgSO4 rejection of 92.6 % at neutral pH, with a permeation flux of 68.2 L m-2h- 1 under 2.0 MPa. Owing to their excellent selectivity, enhanced acid stability, structural controllability, and ease of functionalization, these PSA-NF membranes are promising for use in industries such as mining, semiconductor, and electroplating.

Extensive research over recent decades has demonstrated the feasibility of producing stable radical polymers (SRPs) by exploring structure–stability relationships. Owing to their excellent redox activities and inherent paramagnetic characteristics, SRPs are emerging as key functional materials with considerable potentials for various applications such as in organic electrodes, semiconductors, magnetic materials, and quantum information technologies. Accordingly, this review provides a comprehensive summary of the most widely investigated and representative families of SRPs. Innovative strategies for the design and synthesis of SRPs and the relationship among the physicochemical properties, electronic structures, and resulting functionalities of these polymers are discussed. Moreover, recent advancements in the applications of SRPs are highlighted. Finally, the key challenges in radical chemistry and material functionalization, offering insights into the transformative potential of these materials for future applications, are emphasized.

As the core component of anion exchange membrane fuel cells (AEMFCs), anion exchange membranes (AEMs) have long faced issues such as low conductivity and poor alkaline resistance. Therefore, the selection of appropriate polymer backbones and cationic functional groups is crucial for enhancing the conductivity and alkaline stability of AEMs. In this study, rigid poly(crown ether) (B-C) and flexible quaternary ammonium Poly (vinyl alcohol) (QPVA) were interconnected using glutaraldehyde as the crosslinker to fabricate highperformance AEMs (QPVA1-X%-(B-C)X%). Flexible QPVA, by virtue of its hydrophilic nature, exhibits remarkable membrane-forming capabilities and effectively facilitates OH- ion conduction. Rigid B-C plays a crucial role in augmenting both the electrical conductivity and alkaline stability of the membranes. Moreover, the cross- linked networks serve to enhance the compatibility between QPVA and B-C, thereby restricting swelling phenomena and further bolstering the alkaline stability of the composite materials. The results indicate that the conductivity and alkaline stability of QPVA1-X%-(B-C)X% AEMs can be effectively optimized by precisely adjusting the amount of B-C added. Among them, the membrane with 30 wt% B-C content exhibits the highest OH- conductivity, reaching 95.31 mS center dot cm-1 at 80 degrees C. Notably, it also demonstrates limited swelling, with a swelling ratio of 60.06%, and excellent alkaline stability. Specifically, after being immersed in 2 mol center dot L-1 KOH solution at 30 degrees C for 168 h, the OH- conductivity of the QPVA70%-(B-C)30% AEM remains at 83.80% of its original value. Moreover, the membranes demonstrate outstanding mechanical properties, registering a tensile strength of 27.54 MPa and an elongation at break of 156.25%. A single cell incorporating the QPVA70%-(B-C)30% AEM attains a peak power density of 469 mW center dot cm-2 at 80 degrees C. These results indicate that the membranes engineered through the rigid-flexible crosslinking strategy hold significant application potential in AEMFCs.

Iron-based Prussian blue analogues (Fe-PB) are considered to be one of the most promising cathode materials for sodium-ion batteries (SIB) due to their open skeleton structure and strong redox activity. However, their large ion radius might lead to stress and structural degradation, resulting in worse rate performance and cycle stability, especially at low temperatures. In this work, a Cs+/Zn2+ co-doping strategy is proposed to increase the performance at low temperature of -20 degrees C for the first time. The doped Cs+/Zn2+ ions have a vital role in lowering interstitial water content in PBA, resulting in improved diffusion dynamics of Na+ ions and greatly enhancing cyclic stability at temperature as low as -20 degrees C. The half cells made from PBA with an optimized Cs+/Zn2+ concentration exhibited excellent performance, retaining 79.63 % of the capacity after 5400 cycles at a low temperature of -20 degrees C and a current density of 5C. The results indicate that the Cs+/Zn2+ co-doped Fe-PB cathode material shows extraordinary performance at low temperature, which holds significant practical importance for promoting low-temperature SIB technology.

As one of the most common post-translational modification of proteins, protein phosphorylation plays a vital role in many physiological processes. The enrichment of phosphopeptides is highly important before the mass spectrometry detection since phosphopeptides are susceptible to interferences from high-abundance non-phosphopeptides. In this study, we designed a novel magnetic composite (Fe3O4@PDA-PEI-Fe3+) for phosphopeptide enrichment with a facile protocol. The developed Fe3O4@PDA-PEI-Fe3+ is a marvelous material with multiple functional groups, and can effectively enrich phosphopeptides through the synergistic effect of three mechanisms, i.e., immobilized metal ion affinity chromatography raised form Fe3+, electrostatic interaction between amine and phosphate groups, and hydrogen bond between the hydrogen atoms of amine groups and oxygen atoms of phosphate groups. Combined with mass spectrometry, the material shows excellent enrichment performance, high sensitivity (0.4 fmol), good selectivity (β-casein:BSA= 1:500, w:w), and stable reusability (at least 5 cycles). In addition, the material was successfully applied to enrich phosphopeptides from skim milk and human saliva samples, implying that it is an ideal adsorbent for the phosphopeptide enrichment in complex biological samples and provides valuable insights into the field of phosphopeptide analysis.

The petrochemical industry is an important producer of high salinity wastewater, necessitating the efficient separation of salts in zero discharge processes. This study reports the development of an industrially scalable thin film composite nanofiltration membranes that facilitate the effective separation of NaCl/Na2SO4. Employing a one-step functionalization process, the membrane pore distribution is sharpened, and the surface negativity is intensified. Branched polyethyleneimine with abundant reactive amine groups is employed as an aqueous comonomer, leading to the generation of high density grafting active sites. Nucleophilic substitution reaction is employed to functionalize the membrane surface with negatively charged sulfonic acid groups. Simultaneously, large voids within the free volume are filled and the pore size distribution is effectively narrowed. The resultant membranes demonstrate an impressive rejection of 99.5 % for Na2SO4, a selectivity of 163.4 for NaCl/Na2SO4 and a selectivity of 488 for Cl-/SO42-, with a water flux of 45 LMH under 0.5 MPa. The corresponding 8 '' x 40 '' sized spiral wound membrane modules exhibit a NaCl/Na2SO4 selectivity of 100.4 and a Cl-/SO42- selectivity of 258.3, demonstrating high practical applicability. A pilot trial is planned to integrate these novel membrane products into zero discharge processes within the internal chemical enterprises of Sinopec.

Lithium extraction from brine sources such as salt lakes, seawater, and produced water from oil/gas fields is garnering increasing interests from the academic and industrial sectors due to its cost-effectiveness and reduced environmental impact. A critical technological challenge is the efficient separation of Mg 2 + and Li + ions. Many researchers have reported the preparation of positively charged nanofiltration membranes with quaternary ammonium groups, yet investigations about quaternary phosphonium groups are scarce. In this work, positively charged nanofiltration membranes were prepared utilizing polyethyleneimine as the aqueous phase monomer, trimesoyl chloride as the organic phase monomer, and 3-bromopropyl triphenyl phosphonium bromide as the functionalizing monomer. The TFC-P + membranes, enriched with a high density of quaternary phosphonium groups and an enhanced Donnan effect, achieve a MgCl 2 rejection of 98.9 %, a Mg 2 + /Li + selectivity of 81.6, and a water flux of 50 LMH under 0.5 MPa. The membranes possess an enhanced comprehensive separation capability that exceeds that of the majority of nanofiltration membranes documented in scholarly articles. Additionally, the membranes exhibit outstanding anti -fouling and anti -bacterial characteristics, essential for their industrial applications. The preparation method proposed herein is simple and conducive to continuous production processes. In light of the abundant produced water reserves from oil and gas extraction, future work will focus on pilot -scale lithium extraction experiments.

This article proposes an innovative tri-generation system aimed at improving the efficiency of proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) combined methanol steam reforming (MSR) setups. The proposed system merges MSR-PEMFC with an organic Rankine cycle (ORC) and Latent-thermal energy storage (LTES) to produce heat, electricity, and purified water concurrently. The MSR process, using methanol and water, acts as a hydrogen source for the PEMFC. Waste heat from the reforming reaction and PEMFC exhaust gases is efficiently recuperated through ORC and LTES. Moreover, a composite phase change material comprising 8% expanded graphite and 92% industrial paraffin wax is formulated for LTES, exhibiting a thermal conductivity of 4.65 Wm-1K-1. Parametric analysis of the methanol-reforming fuel cell system suggests a methanol to water mass ratio of 1.5 and a pressure swing absorption shunt fraction of 0.77. Multi-objective optimization of the recovery system using the Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II algorithm is conducted, with objective functions including tri-generation system exergy efficiency, CO2 emission reduction, and total cost to evaluate system thermodynamic, environmental, and economic performance, respectively. The ORC system employing R245fa and R600 yields 27% more electricity than the R152a-based system, with exergy efficiencies approximately twice as high. Compared to conventional systems, the proposed tri-generation system achieves an energy efficiency of 81% and exhibits a 22% enhancement in energy efficiency.