The purpose of this book is to give a global vision of basic concepts, featured manufacturing approaches and potential applications where the control of pore size and shape and distribution can be decisive for the success of a membrane process. It describes how to manage materials on molecular to macro scale for achieving high-defined architectures on large scale, thus enabling one to reach new productivity/efficiency trade-off for several advanced applications.

The reader is encouraged to use this cross-disciplinary discussion for his own research or investment, thus stimulating reflections and new purposes, which may open new routes in using the membrane science in some expanding fields, including environment, energy, food and health. Advances and innovation are the central ideas of the book, providing a useful indication to solve current critical aspects and overcome existing bottlenecks in the extensive control of structural features of targeted membranes as well as in the potential scale up of developed and promising manufacturing techniques.

Through the book, the reader will have the opportunity to understand the advanced techniques dedicated to the preparation of membranes with defined pore structure, as well as about the capability of a membrane to separate molecular species depending on the free pathways throughout it. Specific topics covered in the book.

Pore concept in membranes and related separation mechanisms
Advances in polymeric porous membranes by phase separation
Supercritical fluid-assisted pore formation in polymeric films
Copolymers assembled in porous nanostructures
Colloids templates for porous structures
Water droplets like pore builders for high-defined porous membranes
Porous membranes via layer-by-layer
Design of porous gels
2D porous films and promising applications
Structure and function of ion channels in membranes
Pore switch for smart membrane separations
Porous membranes for pressure-driven membrane processes
Reactors-like pores in membranes
Role of pores in membrane contactors technologies
Pore-like free volume in dense matrixes for selective gas separation

Author Biography

Annarosa Gugliuzza received her PhD in chemical science in 1999 and since 2001 is a senior researcher at the Institute of the Membrane Technology at the University of Calabria, Italy. She is a membrane technologist with interests in self-assembly technologies for the fabrication of nanocomposite functional membranes with very high levels of organization, structure, dynamics and associated properties, including super-hydrophobicity, super-hydrophilicity, self-cleaning, sensing, separation and catalysis.

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