Two-Dimensional MFI-Type Zeolite Flow Battery Membranes.

Vanadium flow battery (VFB) is one of the most reliable stationary electrochemical energy-storage technologies, and a membrane with high vanadium resistance and proton conductivity is essential for manufacturing high-performance VFBs. In this study, a two-dimensional (2D) MFI-type zeolite membrane was fabricated from zeolite nanosheet modules, which displayed excellent vanadium resistance (0.07 mmol L-1 h-1 ) and proton conductivity (0.16 S cm-1 ), yielding a coulombic efficiency of 93.9 %, a voltage efficiency of 87.6 %, and an energy efficiency of 82.3 % at 40 mA cm-2 . The self-discharge period of a VFB equipped with 2D MFI-type zeolite membrane increased up to 116.2 h, which was significantly longer than that of the commercial perfluorinated sulfonate membrane (45.9 h). Furthermore, the corresponding battery performance remained stable over 1000 cycles (>1500 h) at 80 mA cm-2 . These findings demonstrate that 2D MFI-type membranes are promising ion-conductive membranes applicable for stationary electrochemical energy-storage devices.

Neoadjuvant Arterial Embolization Chemotherapy Combined PD-1 Inhibitor for Locally Advanced Rectal Cancer (NECI Study): a protocol for a phase II study.

INTRODUCTION: The NICHE trial showed remarkable results of neoadjuvant immunotherapy in colorectal cancer patients with mismatch repair (MMR) deficiency (dMMR). However, rectal cancer patients with dMMR accounted for only 10% of case. The therapeutic effect is unsatisfactory in MMR-proficient patients. Oxaliplatin has been demonstrated to induce immunogenic cell death (ICD), which may improve the therapeutic effect of programmed cell death 1 blockade; however, a maximum tolerated dose is required to induce ICD. Arterial embolisation chemotherapy provides drugs locally and can easily reach the maximum tolerated dose, which could be a significant method for delivering chemotherapeutic agents. Therefore, we designed a multicenter, prospective, single-arm, phase II study. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: First, recruited patients will receive neoadjuvant arterial embolisation chemotherapy (NAEC) with oxaliplatin 85 mg/m2 and 3 mg/m2. After 2 days, three cycles of immunotherapy with intravenous tislelizumab (200 mg/body, day 1) will be initiated at an interval of 3 weeks. From the second cycle of immunotherapy, the XELOX regimen will be added. 3 weeks after neoadjuvant therapy finished, the operation will be initiated. Neoadjuvant Arterial Embolization Chemotherapy Combined PD-1 Inhibitor for Locally Advanced Rectal Cancer (NECI) Study combined arterial embolisation chemotherapy, immunotherapy and systemic chemotherapy. Based on this combination therapy, the maximum tolerated dose could easily be reached, and ICD could be induced by oxaliplatin easily. To our knowledge, the NECI Study is the first multicenter, prospective, single-arm, phase II clinical trial to assess the efficacy and safety of NAEC combined with tislelizumab and systemic chemotherapy in locally advanced rectal cancer. This study is expected to provide a new neoadjuvant therapeutic regimen for locally advanced rectal cancer. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The Human Research Ethics Committee of the Fourth Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine approved this study protocol. The results will be published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at appropriate conferences. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT05420584.

Parachute-like pull-through anastomosis for low rectal cancer: a new method for preservation of anal function.

BACKGROUND: With recent improvements in surgical technique, oncological outcomes of low rectal cancer have improved over time. But the QoL impairment as a result of anal functional disorder cannot be ignored. And the incidence of anastomosis-related complications cannot be ignored. To address these problems, a personal technique for pull-through coloanal anastomosis (parachute-like intussuscept pull-through anastomosis) was introduced and evaluated. This technique can relatively reduce surgical complications, minimize the impact of anal function, and obviate a colostomy creation. METHODS: Between June 2020 and April 2021, 14 consecutive patients with rectal cancer underwent laparoscopic-assisted resection of rectal cancer in our hospital. Parachute-like pull-through anastomosis method was performed in all patients. Anal function, perioperative details, and postoperative outcomes were analyzed. RESULTS: The mean (SD) operative time of first stage was 282.1 min (range 220-370) with an average estimated blood loss of 90.3 mL (range 33-200). And the mean (SD) operative time of second was 46 min (range 25-76) with an average estimated blood loss of 16.1 mL (range 5-50). Wexner scores declined significantly during the median follow-up of 18 months. Four postoperative anastomosis-related complications occurred in 14 patients, including perianastomotic abscess: 1 case (7%), anastomotic stricture: 1 case (7%), and colonic ischemia of the exteriorized colonic segment: 2 cases (14%). CONCLUSION: The results suggest that the method can facilitate safe and easy completion of coloanal anastomosis, using parachute-like pull-through anastomosis, with acceptable anal function.

Efficient Estimation of Permeate Flux of Asymmetric Ceramic Membranes for Vacuum Membrane Distillation.

Ceramic membranes have the advantages of high mechanical strength and thermal stability and are promising candidates for membrane distillation. Ceramic membranes are generally designed to have a multilayer structure with different pore sizes to create a high liquid entry pressure and obtain a high permeability. However, these structural characteristics pose significant difficulties in predicting permeate flux in a ceramic membrane contactor for vacuum membrane distillation (VMD). Here, a modeling approach was developed to simulate the VMD process and verified by comparing the simulated results with the experimental data. Furthermore, correlations are proposed to simplify the calculations of permeate flux for VMD using asymmetric ceramic membranes by assuming those multilayers to be an effectively quasi-symmetric layer and by introducing a correction factor. The simulation results indicated that this simplified correlation was effective and enabled a quick estimation of the effect of membrane parameters on permeate flux.

Preoperative recurrence prediction in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma after radical resection using radiomics of diagnostic computed tomography.

BACKGROUND: The high recurrence rate after radical resection of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) leads to its poor prognosis. We aimed to develop a model to preoperatively predict the risk of recurrence based on computed tomography (CT) radiomics and multiple clinical parameters. METHODS: Datasets were retrospectively collected and analysed of 220 PDAC patients who underwent contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CE-CT) and received radical resection at 3 institutions in China between 2013 and 2017, with 153 from one institution as a training set, the remaining 67 as a validation set. For each patient, CT radiomics features were extracted from intratumoral and peritumoral regions to establish intratumoral, peritumoral and combined radiomics models using artificial neural network (ANN) algorithm. By incorporating clinical factors, radiomics-clinical nomograms were finally built by multivariable logistic regression analysis to predict 1- and 2-year recurrence risk. FINDINGS: The developed radiomics model integrating intratumoral and peritumoral radiomics features was superior to the conventionally constructed model merely using intratumoral radiomics features. Further, radiomics-clinical nomograms outperformed other models in predicting 1-year recurrence with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) of 0.916 (95%CI, 0.860-0.955) in the training set and 0.764 (95%CI, 0.644-0.859) in the validation set, and 2-year recurrence with an AUROC of 0.872 (95%CI: 0.809-0.921) in the training set and 0.773 (95%CI, 0.654-0.866) in the validation set. INTERPRETATION: This study has developed and externally validated a radiomics-clinical nomogram integrating intra- and peritumoral CT radiomics signature as well as clinical factors to predict the recurrence risk of PDAC after radical resection, which will facilitate optimized and individualized treatment strategies. FUNDING: This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China [grant number: 2018YFE0114800], the General Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number: 81772562, 2017; 81871351, 2018], the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [grant number: 2021FZZX005-08], and Zhejiang Provincial Key Projects of Technology Research [grant number: WKJ-ZJ-2033].

Enhanced Performance of Fly Ash-Based Supports for Low-Cost Ceramic Membranes with the Addition of Bauxite.

Support is a necessary foundation for ceramic membranes to achieve high performance. Finding the optimum balance between high performance and low cost is still a significant challenge in the fabrication of ceramic supports. In this study, low-cost fly ash-based ceramic supports with enhanced performance were prepared by the addition of bauxite. The pore structure, mechanical strength, and shrinkage of fly ash/bauxite supports could be tuned by optimizing the bauxite content and sintering temperature. When the sintering temperature and bauxite content were controlled at 1300 °C and 40 wt%, respectively, the obtained membrane supports exhibited a high pure water permeance of approximately 5.36 m3·m-2·h-1·bar-1 and a high bending strength of approximately 69.6 MPa. At the same time, the optimized ceramic supports presented a typical mullite phase and excellent resistance to acid and alkali. This work provides a potential route for the preparation of ceramic membrane supports with characteristics of low cost and high performance.

Multi-institutional development and external validation of machine learning-based models to predict relapse risk of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma after radical resection.

BACKGROUND: Surgical resection is the only potentially curative treatment for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) and the survival of patients after radical resection is closely related to relapse. We aimed to develop models to predict the risk of relapse using machine learning methods based on multiple clinical parameters. METHODS: Data were collected and analysed of 262 PDAC patients who underwent radical resection at 3 institutions between 2013 and 2017, with 183 from one institution as a training set, 79 from the other 2 institution as a validation set. We developed and compared several predictive models to predict 1- and 2-year relapse risk using machine learning approaches. RESULTS: Machine learning techniques were superior to conventional regression-based analyses in predicting risk of relapse of PDAC after radical resection. Among them, the random forest (RF) outperformed other methods in the training set. The highest accuracy and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) for predicting 1-year relapse risk with RF were 78.4% and 0.834, respectively, and for 2-year relapse risk were 95.1% and 0.998. However, the support vector machine (SVM) model showed better performance than the others for predicting 1-year relapse risk in the validation set. And the k neighbor algorithm (KNN) model achieved the highest accuracy and AUROC for predicting 2-year relapse risk. CONCLUSIONS: By machine learning, this study has developed and validated comprehensive models integrating clinicopathological characteristics to predict the relapse risk of PDAC after radical resection which will guide the development of personalized surveillance programs after surgery.

Exosomes Derived from Pancreatic Cancer Cells Induce Osteoclast Differentiation Through the miR125a-5p/TNFRSF1B Pathway.

BACKGROUND: Pancreatic cancer (PC) was regarded as the 4th principal cause of cancer-related fatalities in the United States and patients usually suffered from severe nutrition deficiency, muscle wasting, as well as bone loss. In our previous research, we have found that PC-derived exosomes potentially initiate insulin resistance in skeletal muscle cells. However, the role of exosomes in the PC-related bone loss remains unknown. METHODS: The effect of PC-derived exosomes on the osteoclast differentiation and femoral bone structure in the orthotopic xenograft mouse model were investigated. MiRNA expression profiles were detected and a dual luciferase experiment was conducted to identify the direct target of miRNA. RESULTS: Our data showed that PC-derived exosomes significantly induced osteoclast differentiation and increased expression of NFAT2, TRAP, CTSK and MMP-9. The bone volume fraction and trabecular thickness of femur significantly reduced in osteoporotic model. Microarray analyses and luciferase reporter assay showed that the process was, at least partially, mediated by the miR-125a-5p/TNFRSF1B signaling pathways. CONCLUSION: According to the results, novel insights have been claimed the effect of exosomes derived from PC on bone deterioration and explained correlation between PC and cancer-related bone loss.

Permeability and Stability of Hydrophobic Tubular Ceramic Membrane Contactor for CO2 Desorption from MEA Solution.

Ceramic membrane contactors hold great promise for CO2 desorption due to their high mass transfer area as well as the favorable characteristics of ceramic materials to resist harsh operating conditions. In this work, a hydrophobic tubular asymmetric alpha-alumina (α-Al2O3) membrane was prepared by grafting a hexadecyltrimethoxysilane ethanol solution. The hydrophobicity and permeability of the membrane were evaluated in terms of water contact angle and nitrogen (N2) flux. The hydrophobic membrane had a water contact angle of ~132° and N2 flux of 0.967 × 10-5 mol/(m2∙s∙Pa). CO2 desorption from the aqueous monoethanolamine (MEA) solution was conducted through the hydrophobic tubular ceramic membrane contactor. The effects of operating conditions, such as CO2 loading, liquid flow rate, liquid temperature and permeate side pressure, on CO2 desorption flux were investigated. Moreover, the stability of the membrane was evaluated after the immersion of the ceramic membrane in an MEA solution at 373 K for 30 days. It was found that the hydrophobic α-Al2O3 membrane had good stability for CO2 desorption from the MEA solution, resulting in a <10% reduction of N2 flux compared to the membrane without MEA immersion.

Perillaldehyde Ameliorates Aspergillus fumigatus Keratitis by Activating the Nrf2/HO-1 Signaling Pathway and Inhibiting Dectin-1-Mediated Inflammation.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the therapeutic effect of perillaldehyde (PAE) on Aspergillus fumigatus (A. fumigatus) keratitis. Methods: Human corneal epithelial cells (HCECs) were pretreated with PAE and stimulated with A. fumigatus mycelium. C57BL/6 mice were infected with A. fumigatus and treated with or without PAE 1 day after infection. Clinical scores, PCR, ELISA, and Western blotting were used to detect the expression of pro-inflammatory mediators, dendritic cell-associated c-type lectin-1 (Dectin-1), nuclear factor (erythroid-derived 2) like 2 (Nrf2), and heme oxygenase (HO-1). Nrf2 expression in HCECs pretreated with PAE was observed by immunofluorescence. NIMP-R14 protein expression and localization in mouse corneas were observed by immunofluorescence staining after treatment with PAE. Corneal colony counting, time-kill tests, and mycelial transformation inhibition tests were used to evaluate the antifungal effect of PAE. Results: C57BL/6 mice treated with PAE at 1 day after infection had a lower clinical score and decreased IL-1ß, TNF-α, IL-6, Dectin-1, and MPO levels. PAE treatment significantly reduced neutrophil recruitments to the corneal stroma. Compared with the DMSO-treated group, PAE treatment significantly decreased mRNA and protein levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines and Dectin-1 in HCECs. PAE pretreatment before A. fumigatus stimulation obviously elevated the mRNA and protein levels of components of the Nrf2/HO-1 axis. HCECs pretreated with PAE before infection showed a weakened ability to inhibit inflammation in the presence of brusatol (BT; an Nrf2 inhibitor) or ZnPP (an HO-1 inhibitor). PAE treatment significantly reduced the fungal load of C57BL/6 mouse corneas and inhibited fungal growth in vitro. Conclusions: These data proved that PAE may ameliorate A. fumigatus keratitis by activating the Nrf2/HO-1 signaling pathway and inhibiting the Dectin-1 mediated inflammatory response and neutrophil recruitment. Furthermore, PAE exerts direct fungicidal activity on A. fumigatus.

Preparation of High Stability Pd/Ceramic/Ti-Al Alloy Composite Membranes by Electroless Plating.

High stability Pd/ceramic/Ti-Al alloy composite membranes were prepared by electroless plating. Ceramic membranes fabricated by an in situ oxidation method were used as an inter-diffusion barrier between the Pd layer and the Ti-Al alloy support of the membranes to prevent intermetallic diffusion. The stabilities of the ceramic membranes at high temperatures in an H2 atmosphere were investigated. The permeation performances and stabilities of the Pd/ceramic/Ti-Al alloy composite membranes were also studied. The results showed that the thickness, pore size, and microstructure of the ceramic membranes did not change significantly after the treatment in an H2 atmosphere at high temperatures, indicating that the ceramic membranes prepared by the in situ oxidation method were stable in an H2 atmosphere at high temperatures. The thickness of the Pd layer was ~13 µm. The hydrogen permeability and H2/N2 selectivity of the Pd composite membranes at 773 K were 2.13 × 10-3 mol m-2 s-1 Pa-0.5 and 600, respectively. In addition, the H2 flux, N2 flux, and H2/N2 selectivity of the composite membranes remained nearly constant over three heat cycles (under the same conditions), indicating that the structures of the Pd/ceramic/Ti-Al alloy composite membranes were stable.

Dimethyl itaconate protects against fungal keratitis by activating the Nrf2/HO-1 signaling pathway.

Dimethyl itaconate (DI) is a membrane-permeable itaconate derivative with anti-inflammatory functions. However, the anti-inflammatory effect of DI has never been studied in fungal keratitis. In this study, we tested the protective effect of DI against fungal keratitis and assessed the role of NF-E2-related factor-2 (Nrf2)/heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) signaling in this process. Eyes of C57BL/6 (B6) mice were treated with 2 mm DI after infection with Aspergillus fumigatus. Human corneal epithelial cells (HCECs) were pretreated with 0.25 mm DI and then incubated with A. fumigatus. Clinical scoring, slit-lamp photography, myeloperoxidase determination, flow cytometry and immunostaining were used to assess the disease response and treatment efficacy. PCR, Western blot and ELISA were used to assess the expression of interleukin-1ß (IL-1ß), chemokine (C-X-C motif) ligand 1, IL-6, IL-8, Nrf2 and HO-1. In addition, quantification of viable fungi, absorbance assays and fluorimetry were used to measure DI fungistatic activity. We observed that DI-treated eyes showed decreased clinical scores, fungal loads, polymorphonuclear neutrophil (PMN) infiltration and cytokine expression, compared with phosphate-buffered saline-treated infected eyes. DI treatment decreased the cytokine levels in infected corneas and in HCECs stimulated with A. fumigatus. Moreover, DI treatment increased Nrf2 and HO-1 expression in corneas and nuclear Nrf2 accumulation in HCECs. DI-induced cytokine downregulation was inhibited by pretreatment with an Nrf2 or HO-1 inhibitor. Finally, DI treatment reduced the A. fumigatus absorbance and fungal mass. These data indicate that DI protects against fungal keratitis by limiting inflammation via the Nrf2/HO-1 signaling pathway and that DI inhibits the growth of A. fumigatus.

Molecular Bridges Stabilize Graphene Oxide Membranes in Water.

Recent innovations highlight the great potential of two-dimensional graphene oxide (GO) films in water-related applications. However, undesirable water-induced effects, such as the redispersion and peeling of stacked GO laminates, greatly limit their performance and impact their practical application. It remains a great challenge to stabilize GO membranes in water. A molecular bridge strategy is reported in which an interlaminar short-chain molecular bridge generates a robust GO laminate that resists the tendency to swell. Furthermore, an interfacial long-chain molecular bridge adheres the GO laminate to a porous substrate to increase the mechanical strength of the membrane. By rationally creating and tuning the molecular bridges, the stabilized GO membranes can exhibit outstanding durability in harsh operating conditions, such as cross-flow, high-pressure, and long-term filtration. This general and scalable stabilizing approach for GO membranes provides new opportunities for reliable two-dimensional laminar films used in aqueous environments.

Dual-Subpopulation as reciprocal optional external archives for differential evolution.

Differential Evolution (DE) is powerful for global optimization problems. Among DE algorithms, JADE and its variants, whose mutation strategy is DE/current-to-pbest/1 with optional archive, have good performance. A significant feature of the above mutation strategy is that one individual for difference operation comes from the union of the optional external archive and the population. In existing DE algorithms based on the mutation strategy-JADE and its variants, individuals eliminated from the population are send to the archive. In this paper, we propose a scheme for managing the optional external archive. According to our scheme, two subpopulations are maintained in the population. Each of them regards the other as the archive. In experiments, our scheme is applied in JADE and two of its variants-SHADE and L-SHADE. Experimental results show that our scheme can enhance JADE and its variants. Moreover, it can be seen that L-SHADE with our scheme performs significantly better than four DE algorithms, CoBiDE, MPEDE, EDEV, and MLCCDE.

Expression of GLS1 in intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma and its clinical significance.

Kidney­type glutaminase (GLS1) plays a significant role in tumor metabolism. Our recent studies demonstrated that GLS1 was aberrantly expressed in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and facilitated tumor progression. However, the roles of GLS1 in intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) remain largely unknown. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate the expression and clinical significance of GLS1 in ICC. For this purpose, combined data from the Oncomine database with those of immunohistochemistry were used to determine the expression levels of GLS1 in cancerous and non­cancerous tissues. Second, a wound­healing assay and Transwell assay were used to observe the effects of the knockdown and overexpression of GLS1 on the invasion and migration of ICC cells. We examined the associations between the expression of GLS1 and epithelial­mesenchymal transition (EMT)­related markers by western blot analysis. Finally, we examined the associations between GLS1 levels and clinicopathological factors or patient prognosis. The results revealed that GLS1 was overexpressed in different digestive system tumors, including ICC, and that GLS1 expression in ICC tissue was higher than that in peritumoral tissue. The overexpression of GLS1 in RBE cells induced metastasis and invasion. Moreover, the EMT­related markers, E­cadherin and Vimentin, were regulated by GLS1 in ICC cells. By contrast, the knockdown of GLS1 expression in QBC939 cells yielded opposite results. Clinically, a high expression of GLS1 in ICC samples negatively correlated with E­cadherin expression and positively correlated with Vimentin expression. GLS1 protein expression was associated with tumor differentiation (P=0.001) and lymphatic metastasis (P=0.029). Importantly, patients with a high GLS1 expression had a poorer overall survival (OS) and a shorter time to recurrence than patients with a low GLS1 expression. Multivariate analysis indicated that GLS1 expression was an independent prognostic indicator. On the whole, the findings of this study demonstrated that GLS1 is an independent prognostic biomarker of ICC. GLS1 facilitates ICC progression and may thus prove to be a therapeutic target in ICC.

Ultrasound Assisted Synthesis of Size-Controlled Aqueous Colloids for the Fabrication of Nanoporous Zirconia Membrane.

Permeation and separation efficiency of ceramic membranes are strongly dependent on their nanoporous structures, especially on the pore size. In this work, ultrasound is employed to form the size-controlled ZrO2 nanoparticles, and a ceramic membrane is prepared with tunable pore size. Under the ultrasound treatment, H+ from water plays a key role in the synthesis process. The cavitation caused by ultrasound promotes the hydrolysis of the precursor in water, which produces a large number of H+. These H+ will react with precipitant added and generate cyclic tetrameric units. Excess H+ can peptize cyclic tetrameric units and form an electrical double layer, resulting in a stable sol. Unlike ultrasound treatment, precipitant will react directly with the precursor and generate precipitation if there is no ultrasound added. Moreover, cavitation is good for the dispersion of cyclic tetrameric units. The particle size of Zr-based colloidal sol can be tuned in the ranges of 1.5 to 120 nm by altering the molar ratio of precursor to precipitant, ultrasonic power density and radiation time. Meanwhile, ultrasonic power density and radiation time have effects on grain size and the crystalline transition temperature of particles which influence performance of the ceramic membrane. As a result, membranes exhibit high performance together with high permeability and desirable rejection. To develop such a simple and controllable method for tuning particle size is extremely important in the preparation of nanoporous ceramic membranes.

Progress of immune checkpoint therapy in the clinic (Review).

Cancer cells can escape antitumor immune responses by exploiting inhibitory immune checkpoints. Immune checkpoint therapy, mainly including anti­CTLA­4 therapy and anti­PD­1/PD­L1 therapy, can enhance antitumor immune responses by blocking the inhibitory signals of the immune system. This therapy has produced clinical advances in a fraction of patients. Deeper insight into the tumor microenvironment and immune checkpoint inhibitors will improve this therapy. Here, we review immune checkpoint inhibitors that prevent tumor immune escape and recent clinical studies of immune checkpoint therapy. We also compare the efficacy of different combination immunotherapies, describe how the relationship between the gut microbiome and immune system can determine the therapeutic outcomes for immune checkpoint inhibitors and introduce several novel immune checkpoints that are potential targets for antitumor immunotherapy in the future.

Self-Cleaning Piezoelectric Membrane for Oil-in-Water Separation.

Ultrasound (US) treatment coupled with membrane filtration has been utilized for membrane fouling control in water treatment; however, large-scale implementation of ultrasonic cleaning equipment appeared to be cost-prohibitive. In this study, a porous lead zirconate titanate (PZT) membrane is presented that enables in situ ultrasound generation by the application of an alternating voltage (AV) to mitigate fouling during oil-in-water (O/W) emulsion separation. We expect that this method is much more cost-effective because it is more direct, avoiding buildup of fouling and the need to take the membrane offline. Because the PZT membrane is hydrophilic, its underwater surface is oleophobic so that the accumulated oil droplets will have little affinity and hence can be removed easily by in situ-generated US. The effect of the in situ US generation on membrane fouling was investigated through variation in the excitation AV and its frequency, O/W emulsion pH, emulsified oil concentration, crossflow velocity, and transmembrane pressure. The results indicated that the in situ US generation resulted in a substantial decrease of fouling during the filtration process of O/W emulsions, whereas the membrane flux was maintained closely at its initial value.

Fabrication of mesoporous titania-zirconia composite membranes based on nanoparticles improved hydrosol.

A novel method for the fabrication of mesoporous titania-zirconia (TiO2ZrO2) composite membranes was successfully developed based on nanoparticles (NPs) improved hydrosol. ZrO2 hydrosols were synthesized through a straightforward sol-gel route using zirconium oxychloride. Compared to the polymeric sol route, this method was found to be more environmentally friendly because organic solvent was not required. Further, highly hydrophilic TiO2 NPs of 10-20nm were well dispersed in the sol and effectively reduced the sol infiltrating into the channels of the support layer by a "bridging" effect. After a rapid evaporation process, a mixed matrix gel was formed on the surface of the support. The dynamic mechanical analysis results showed that the toughness and stiffness of the gel were significantly strengthened, which was beneficial to reduce the risk of membrane cracking. So, an integrated, crack-free mesoporous TiO2ZrO2 composite membrane was obtained by directly coating and sintering the mixture on a macroporous support. It showed that the composite membrane delivered better separation performance though the filtration test. The water flux, molecular weight cutoff, and average pore size of the synthesized membrane were 60Lm(-2)h(-1)bar(-1), 4704Da, and 3.5nm, respectively.

A reduced graphene oxide nanofiltration membrane intercalated by well-dispersed carbon nanotubes for drinking water purification.

In this study, we report a promising rGO-CNT hybrid nanofiltration (NF) membrane that was fabricated by loading reduced graphene oxide that was intercalated with carbon nanotubes (rGO-CNTs) onto an anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) microfiltration membrane via a facile vacuum-assisted filtration process. To create this NF membrane, the CNTs were first dispersed using block copolymers (BCPs); the effects of the types and contents of BCPs used on the dispersion of CNTs have been investigated. The as-prepared rGO-CNT hybrid NF membranes were then used for drinking water purification to retain the nanoparticles, dyes, proteins, organophosphates, sugars, and particularly humic acid. Experimentally, it is shown that the rGO-CNT hybrid NF membranes have high retention efficiency, good permeability and good anti-fouling properties. The retention was above 97.3% even for methyl orange (327 Da); for other objects, the retention was above 99%. The membrane's permeability was found to be as high as 20-30 L m(-2) h(-1) bar(-1). Based on these results, we can conclude that (i) the use of BCPs as a surfactant can enhance steric repulsion and thus disperse CNTs effectively; (ii) placing well-dispersed 1D CNTs within 2D graphene sheets allows an uniform network to form, which can provide many mass transfer channels through the continuous 3D nanostructure, resulting in the high permeability and separation performance of the rGO-CNT hybrid NF membranes.