Since the global outbreak of COVID-19, membrane technology for clinical treatments, including extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) and protective masks and clothing, has attracted intense research attention for its irreplaceable abilities. Membrane research and applications are now playing an increasingly important role in various fields of life science. In addition to intrinsic properties such as size sieving, dissolution and diffusion, membranes are often endowed with additional functions as cell scaffolds, catalysts or sensors to satisfy the specific requirements of different clinical applications. In this review, we will introduce and discuss state-of-the-art membranes and their respective functions in four typical areas of life science: artificial organs, tissue engineering, in vitro blood diagnosis and medical support. Emphasis will be given to the description of certain specific functions required of membranes in each field to provide guidance for the selection and fabrication of the membrane material. The advantages and disadvantages of these membranes have been compared to indicate further development directions for different clinical applications. Finally, we propose challenges and outlooks for future development.

The emerging one-dimensional wire-shaped supercapacitors (SCs) with structural advantages of low mass/volume structural advantages hold great interests in wearable electronic engineering. Although graphene fiber (GF) has full of vigor and tremendous potentiality as promising linear electrodefor wire-shaped SCs, simultaneously achieving its facile fabrication process and satisfactory electrochemical performance still remains challenging to date. Herein, two novel types of graphene hybrid fibers, namely ferroferric oxide dots (FODs)@GF and N-doped carbon polyhedrons (NCPs)@GF, have been proposed via a simple and efficient chemical reduction-induced fabrication. Synergistically coupling the electroactive units (FODs and NCPs) with conductive graphene nanosheets endows the fiber-shaped architecture with boosted electrochemical activity, high flexibility and structural integrity. The resultant FODs@GF and NCPs@GF hybrid fibers as linear electrodes both exhibit excellent electrochemical behaviors, including large volumetric specific capacitance, good rate capability, as well as favorable electrochemical kinetics in ionic liquid electrolyte. Based on such two linear electrodes and ionogel electrolyte, a high-performance wire-shaped SC is effectively assembled with ultrahigh volumetric energy density (26.9 mW·h·cm^-3), volumetric power density (4900 mW·cm^-3) and strong durability over 10,000 cycles under straight/bending states. Furthermore, the assembled wire-shaped SC with excellent flexibility and weavability acts as efficient energy storage device for the application in wearable electronics.

The design of Co-Mn composite oxides catalysts derived from MOF is significant for catalytic combustion of toluene. Here, a series of M-Co_aMn_bO_x, with enhanced catalytic properties compared with that of M-Co₃O₄, were successfully prepared through pyrolysis of Mn-doped Co-MOF. The as-synthesized M-Co₁Mn₁O_x (Co:Mn = 1:1) exhibits an optimal catalytic activity with 90% toluene conversion reached at 227 ℃, which benefits from the increase of Co³⁺, O_ads and the synergistic effect between Mn and Co. According to the analysis of the in situ diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy, toluene could be degraded easier on M-Co₁Mn₁O_x with lower activation energy than M-Co₃O₄. The main intermediate products are benzaldehyde, benzoic acid, anhydride, and maleate species. Those findings reveal the value of Mn doping for improved activity of toluene oxidation on MOF derived Co₃O₄, which provide a feasible method for the construction of toluene-oxidation catalysts.

Conjugated microporous polymers (CMPs) are a unique class of porous organic materials, which are constructed with π-conjugation structures leading to intrinsic micropores. The CMPs properties such as high surface area, intrinsic and rich micropores, interlocking and rigid structure, extensive π-conjugation and tunable band-gap, chemical and thermal stability, together with tailored functionalities, contribute to its abundant potential for application in fields such as photocatalysis, optoelectronics, energy storage, and chemical sensors. Recently, CMPs have gained importance in the field of membranes for chemical separation. In this review, we briefly discuss the historical development of CMPs, followed by a detailed description of the progress in state-of-the-art design, preparation, and application of CMPs in membranes. Additionally, we provide inference on the future prospects of CMPs as membranes.

In this study, biochar (BC) derived from pomelo was prepared via a high-temperature calcination method to modify the graphitic carbon nitride (g-C₃N₄) to synthesize the BC/g-C₃N₄ composite for the degradation of the tetracycline (TC) antibiotic under visible light irradiation. The experimental results exhibit that the optimal feeding weight ratio of biochar/urea is 0.03:1 in BC/g-C₃N₄ composite could show the best photocatalytic activity with the degradation rate of tetracycline is 83% in 100?min irradiation. The improvement of photocatalytic activity is mainly attributed to the following two points: (i) the strong bonding with π-π stacking between BC and g-C₃N₄ make the photogenerated electrons of light-excited g-C₃N₄ transfer to BC, quickly and improve the separation efficiency of carriers; (ii) the introduction of BC reduces the distance for photogenerated electrons to migrate to the surface and increases the specific surface area for providing more active sites. This study provides a sustainable, economical and promising method for the synthesis of photocatalytic materials their application to wastewater treatment.

Vortices motion in the anisotropic turbulent flow of cyclones makes a vital impact on flow stability and collection performance. Nevertheless, there remains a lack of clarity in the overall feature of vortices motion. In this work, a numerical analysis was conducted to clarify the complex motion of the vortex core in a cyclone separator. The validity of the numerical model was demonstrated by comparing the computational results with experimental data in the literature. As revealed by the results, the vortex core not only has a precession motion about the geometrical center axis but also does a nutation motion in the axial direction. The frequencies of the precession motions show two main peaks. And the magnitudes of the precession and nutation motions have non-uniform distributions in the cyclone. Moreover, the precession-nutation motions of the vortex cores exhibit a similar fluctuant pattern to the dust ring on the separator wall. The inlet gas velocity and the inlet solid loading show vital effects on the magnitudes and frequencies of precession and nutation motion.

The liquid phase direct ammoximation of 5-isooctyl salicylaldehyde with ammonia and hydrogen peroxide was studied using titanium silicalite-1 (TS-1) catalyst. The effect of reaction parameters on the yield of the product was studied, which include reaction temperature, reaction time, molar ratio of ammonia to aldehyde as well as hydrogen peroxide to aldehyde. The influence of the amount of catalyst on the reaction results was also investigated. The maximum 5-isooctyl salicylaldoxime yield of 98.76% was achieved under the following optimal reaction conditions:the molar ratio of 5-isooctylaldehyde to hydrogen peroxide and ammonia of 1:1.4:1.6, the reaction temperature of 70℃, the amount of TS-1 of 17.5 g·mol^-1 (5-isooctyl salicylaldehyde), and the feeding time of 2 h. This method has the mild reaction conditions and avoids the shortcomings of traditional methods. Moreover, useless inorganic salts by-products are avoided, and there is no environmental pollution.

A redox process combining propane dehydrogenation (PDH) with selective hydrogen combustion (SHC) is proposed, modeled, simulated, and optimized. In this process, PDH and SHC catalysts are physically mixed in a fixed-bed reactor, so that the two reactions proceed simultaneously. The redox process can be up to 177.0% higher in propylene yield than the conventional process where only PDH catalysts are packed in the reactor. The reason is twofold:firstly, SHC reaction consumes hydrogen and then shifts PDH reaction equilibrium towards propylene; secondly, SHC reaction provides much heat to drive the highly endothermic PDH reaction. Considering propylene yield, operating time, and other factors, the preferable operating conditions for the redox process are a feed temperature of 973 K, a feed pressure of 0.1 MPa, and a mole ratio of H₂ to C₃H₈ of 0.15, and the optimal mass fraction of PDH catalyst is 0.5. This work should provide some useful guidance for the development of redox processes for propane dehydrogenation.

Slurry reactors are popular in many industrial processes, involved with numerous chemical and biological mixtures, solid particles with different concentrations and properties, and a wide range of operating conditions. These factors can significantly affect the hydrodynamic in the slurry reactors, having remarkable effects on the design, scale-up, and operation of the slurry reactors. This article reviews the influences of fluid physical properties, solid particles, and operating conditions on the hydrodynamics in slurry reactors. Firstly, the influence of fluid properties, including the density and viscosity of the individual liquid and gas phases and the interfacial tension, has been reviewed. Secondly, the solid particle properties (i.e., concentration, density, size, wettability, and shape) on the hydrodynamics have been discussed in detail, and some vital but often ignored features, especially the influences of particle wettability and shape, as well as the variation of surface tension because of solid concentration alteration, are highlighted in this work. Thirdly, the variations of physical properties of fluids, hydrodynamics, and bubble behavior resulted from the temperature and pressure variations are also summarized, and the indirect influences of pressure on viscosity and surface tension are addressed systematically. Finally, conclusions and perspectives of these notable influences on the design and scale-up of industrial slurry reactors are presented.

In this study, different sizes of microcapsules with alginate and bentonite as natural macromolecular materials were prepared to investigate the release property of Pseudomonas putida Rs-198. The characteristics of three microcapsules were evaluated by SEM, FTIR, TG-DSC, XRD and wall thickness. The sizes of three microcapsules (MA, MB, and MC) were 1270.50, 831.79 and 42.52?μm, respectively. First, the encapsulation efficiency of three MA, MB, and MC microcapsules were 82.20%, 90.41%, and 85.84%, respectively. Second, the contact angles of MA and MB samples were similar, while smaller microcapsules MC have higher contact angle (85.05°), indicating poor hydrophilia and decreasing the swelling degrees. Third, the release cumulant of Rs-198 and macromolecule BSA linear stage was fitted to self-established mathematic model. Results show that the microcapsule size had a considerably positive effect on release detail. The large microcapsule possessed strong leak-tightness for Rs-198 as a slow-release microbial agent. Furthermore, the porosity of microcapsules determined their swelling and release and may affect bacterial growth and survival. In conclusion, the Rs-198 microcapsule with different sizes will be pertinently selected based on the characteristics of agricultural production requirements.

Constructing the stable, low-cost, efficient, and highly adaptable visible light-driven photocatalyst to implement the synergistic effect of photocatalysis and adsorption has been excavated a promising strategy to deal with antibiotic pollution in water bodies. Herein, a novel 3D ternary Z-scheme heterojunction photocatalyst Ni₂P/Bi₂MoO₆/g-C₃N₄ (Ni₂P/BMO/CN) was fabricated by a simple solvothermal method in which the broad spectrum antibiotics (mainly tetracyclines and supplemented by quinolones) were used as target pollution sources to evaluate its adsorption and photocatalytic performance. Notably, the Z-scheme composite significantly exhibit the enhancement for degradation efficiency of tetracycline and other antibiotic by using Ni₂P nanoparticles as electron conductor. Active species capture experiment and electron spin resonance (ESR) technology reveal the mechanism of Z-scheme Ni₂P/BMO/CN photocatalytic reaction in detail. In addition, based on the identification of intermediates by liquid chromatography–mass spectroscopy (LC–MS), the possible photocatalytic degradation pathways of TC were proposed.

In the present study, composites of Polyaniline and some fruit peels were synthesized in various conditions and used for lead removal from aqueous solutions. Adsorption tests were conducted in batch mode using the most efficient adsorbent, and the effects of medium pH, initial lead concentration, contact time, adsorbent dosage, and adsorption isotherms were investigated. The results showed that all composites were more efficient in lead removal compared to the fruit peels alone. The highest removal percentage was related to the composite of banana peel and Polyaniline that synthesized in the aqueous solution in the presence of 2 g·L^-1 Poly ethylene glycol. This composite showed 95.96% lead adsorption at pH = 6, the contact time of 90 min, the initial lead concentration of 25 mg·L^-1, and an adsorbent concentration of 8 g·L^-1. Adsorption isotherm study showed that adsorption of lead by synthesized composite could be fitted by both Langmuir and Freundlich models, but the Langmuir model was more fitted than Freundlich. Besides, some characteristics of the composites, such as chemical composition (XRD analysis), structure, and morphology (SEM analysis) and functional groups (FTIR analysis), were studied.

Hydrogen and light hydrocarbon components are essential resources of the refinery. The optimization of the refinery hydrogen system and recovery of the light hydrocarbon components contained in the gas streams are key strategies to reduce the operating costs for sustainable development. Many research efforts have been focused on the optimization of single impurity hydrogen network, and the flowrates of the hydrogen sources and sinks are assumed to be constant. However, their flowrates vary along with the quality of crude oil and refinery processing plans. A general superstructure of multicomponent refinery hydrogen network is proposed, which considers four components, namely H₂, H₂S, CH₄ and , as well as the flowrate variations of hydrogen source and hydrogen sink. The mathematical model based on the superstructure is developed with objective functions, including the minimization of total annualized cost and the maximization of overall satisfaction of the hydrogen network. Moreover, the model considers the removal of hydrogen sulfide and the recovery of light hydrocarbon components (i.e.C₂₊, ) in the optimization. To verify the applicability of the proposed mathematical model, a simplified industrial case study with four scenarios is solved. The optimization results show that the economic benefit can be maximized by considering both the direct reuse of gas streams from high-pressure separator (HP gas stream) and from low-pressure separator (LP gas stream) and the recovery of the light hydrocarbon streams. The fuzzy optimization method can be used to guide the optimal design of the refinery hydrogen system with multi-period variable flowrates.

Recently, there has been considerable interest in the use of microchannel reactors for hydrometallurgy of rare earths (REs). Here, a novel integrated microchannel reactor based on the hollow-strut SiC foam material is presented and demonstrated to extract Ce³⁺ and Pr³⁺ using 2-ethylhexyl phosphoric acid mono-2-ethylhexyl ester (P507) as the extractant. The typical three-dimensional reticulated structure of the hollow-strut SiC foam was characterized by scanning electron microscopy and X-ray micro computed tomography. Since the reactor’s structure plays a key role in fluid mixing and mass diffusion during the extraction process, the structure-performance relationship of the foam was studied by extraction experiments combined with numerical simulations. Using the foam with the optimal structure, the influence of the flow rate Q₀ of the two liquid phases on the extraction efficiency η and overall volume mass transfer coefficient K_La was discussed. For both RE ions, with increasing Q₀, η decreases while K_La increases. For the total flow rate of the two phases of 4 ml·min^-1, the η values of Pr³⁺ and Ce³⁺ reached 98.7% and 97.0%, respectively. For the total flow rate of 36 ml·min^-1 which was much higher than that of many other microchannel reactors reported in the literatures, the η values of Pr³⁺ and Ce³⁺ still reached 92.2% and 86.9%, respectively, and the K_La values of Pr³⁺ and Ce³⁺ were 0.198 and 0.161 s^-1, respectively, similar to the high values reported for other microchannel reactors studied in previous work. These findings indicate that the hollow-strut SiC foam microchannel reactor is suitable for use in REs extraction.

Chromium (Cr) is a common heavy metal that has severe impacts on the ecosystem and human health. Capacitive deionization (CDI) is an environment-friendly and energy-efficient electrochemical purification technology to remove Cr from polluted water. The performance of CDI systems relies primarily on the properties of electrodes. Carbon-nanotubes (CNTs) membranes are promising candidates in creating advanced CDI electrodes and processes. However, the low electrosorption capacity and high hydrophobicity of CNTs greatly impede their applications in water systems. In this study, we employ atomic layer deposition (ALD) to deposit TiO₂ nanoparticulates on CNTs membranes for preparing electrodes with hydrophilicity. The TiO₂-deposited CNTs membranes display preferable electrosorption performance and reusability in CDI processes after only 20 ALD cycles deposition. The total Cr and Cr(VI) removal efficiencies are significantly improved to 92.1% and 93.3%, respectively. This work demonstrates that ALD is a highly controllable and simple method to produce advanced CDI electrodes, and broadens the application of metal oxide/carbon composites in the electrochemical processes.

Mesoporous transition metal oxide catalysts are well-used in the elimination of volatile organic compounds. In this study, we developed an efficient method for the preparation of mesoporous-Mn₃O₄ (m-Mn₃O₄) without the use of templates or surfactants. In this method, KCl protects oxygen defects on the surface of fresh Mn₃O₄ crystallites. m-Mn₃O₄ shows higher ameliorative catalytic activity than bulk-Mn₃O₄ (b-Mn₃O₄) and calcined-Mn₃O₄ (c-Mn₃O₄), achieving toluene catalytic oxidation of T₁₀ and T₉₀ (the temperature at a conversion rate of about 10% and 90%) at 191 ℃ and 230 ℃, respectively (WHSV = 40,000 ml·g^-1·h^-1). Based on various characterizations, the prepared m-Mn₃O₄ has large specific surface area and abundant oxygen defects, and thus can provide more surface active sites, which give it superior toluene combustion activity.

Several Ni-W-P-TiO₂ nanocomposite coatings were developed by the sol-enhanced electroplating method. The phase and elemental compositions of coatings were determined, and the surface and cross-section morphology were characterized. The mechanical and corrosion performance were systematically tested. The results revealed the addition of 5 ml·L^-1 TiO₂ sol caused a compact coating surface, while higher concentrations of TiO₂ reduced the coating thickness and led to the inferior surface microstructure. The comparison in physiochemical properties of prepared coatings confirmed the superior performance of the Ni-W-P-TiO₂ nanocomposite coating at 5 ml·L^-1 TiO₂ sol addition. Under this condition, the best mechanical properties were achieved when abrasive wear was the dominating wear-resistance mechanism, and the best corrosion resistance was obtained due to its smooth and compact surface microstructure.

Octane and p-xylene are common components in crude gasoline, so their separation process is very important in petroleum industry. The azeotrope and near azeotrope are often separated by extractive distillation in industry, which can realize the recovery and utilization of resources. In this work, the vapor–liquid equilibrium experiment was used to obtain the vapor–liquid equilibrium properties of the difficult separation system, and on this basis, the solvent extraction mechanism was studied. The mechanism of solvent separation plays a guiding role in selecting suitable solvents for industrial separation. The interaction energy, bond length and charge density distribution of p-xylene with solvent are calculated by quantum chemistry method. The quantum chemistry calculation results and experiment results showed that N-formylmorpholine is the best solvent among the alternative solvents in the work. This work provides an effective and complete solvent screening process from phase equilibrium experiments to quantum chemical calculation. An extractive distillation simulation process with N-formylmorpholine as solvent is designed to separate octane and p-xylene. In addition, the feasibility and effectiveness of the intensified vapor recompression assisted extraction distillation are also discussed. In the extractive distillation process, the vapor recompression-assisted extraction distillation process is globally optimal. Compared with basic process, the total annual cost can be reduced by 43.2%. This study provides theoretical guidance for extractive distillation separation technology and solvent selection.

Three-dimensional graphene-based aerogels have promising applications in oil adsorption and environmental restoration. However, current research of graphene-based aerogels is often hindered by high preparation cost, poor mechanical properties and low recycling efficiency. Here, super-elastic graphene aerogel (SGA) was prepared through one-step freezing and twice hydrothermal reduction followed by drying under ambient pressure. The simple atmospheric drying provides a possibility for large-scale preparation of high performance graphene-based aerogels. The prepared SGA not only has the ability of highly repeatable compression rebound, but also exhibits excellent oil adsorption performance. And the overall performance of SGA is better than most of graphene-based aerogels prepared by freeze drying. After the SGA was cyclically compressed with 70% strain for 300 times, it can return to the original shape and height substantially. SGA retained about 90% of the initial adsorption capacity after 50 cycles of adsorption and compression regeneration for cyclohexane.

Even though biodissolution of chalcopyrite is considered to be one of the key contributors in the formation of acid mine drainage (AMD), there are few studies to control AMD by inhibiting chalcopyrite biodissolution. Therefore, a novel method of using hematite to inhibit chalcopyrite biodissolution was proposed and verified. The results indicated that chalcopyrite biodissolution could be significantly inhibited by hematite, which consequently decreased the formation of AMD. In the presence of hematite, the final biodissolution rate of chalcopyrite decreased from 57.9% to 44.4% at 20 day. This in turn suggested that the formation of AMD was effectively suppressed under such condition. According to the biodissolution results, mineral composition and morphology analyses, and electrochemical analysis, it was shown that hematite promoted the formation and accumulation of passivation substances (jarosite and Cu_2-xS) on chalcopyrite surface, thus inhibiting the biodissolution of chalcopyrite and limiting the formation of AMD.