The polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) membrane commonly used for separation of biobutanol from fermentation broth fails to meet demand owing to its discontinuous and polluting thermal fabrication. Now, an UV‐induced polymerization strategy is proposed to realize the ultrafast and continuous fabrication of the PDMS membrane. UV‐crosslinking of synthesized methacrylate‐functionalized PDMS (MA‐PDMS) is complete within 30 s. The crosslinking rate is three orders of magnitude larger than the conventional thermal crosslinking. The MA‐PDMS membrane shows a versatile potential for liquid and gas separations, especially featuring an excellent pervaporation performance for n‐butanol. Filler aggregation, the major bottleneck for the development of high‐performance mixed matrix membranes (MMMs), is overcome, because the UV polymerization strategy demonstrates a freezing effect towards fillers in polymer, resulting in an extremely high‐loading silicalite‐1/MA‐PDMS MMM with uniform particle distribution.

Traditional films cannotf ully adapt to industrial applicationsa nd to intensified processes. Advanced mixedmatrix membranes comprising metal-organic frameworks (MOF) embedded in ap olymer matrix have been developed with the goal of breaking the trade-offe ffect of traditional polymer membranes and achieving separation performance beyond Robeson's upper limit. The key challenges in the fabrication of MOF-based mixed-matrix membranes are an enhancementi nc ompatibility between the inorganic filler and the polymer matrix, elimination of the irregular mor-phologyand non-selectiveinterfacial defects, and further improvement in the gas-separation performance. This review summarizes the recent advances in protocols and strategies in terms of designing interfacial interactions to enhancet he MOF/polymer interface compatibility. This review aims at providing some meaningful insights into preparing MOFbased mixed-matrix membranes targeting ideal interfacial morphology and leading to excellent gas-separation performance.

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have shown great potential in gas storage and separation, energy storage and conversion, vapor sensing, and catalysis. Nevertheless, rare attention has been paid to their anticorrosion performances. At present, substantial hydrophobic and water stable MOFs (like ZIF-8), which are potentially favorable for their applications in anticorrosion industry, have been successfully designed and prepared. In this study, a facile ligand-assisted conversion strategy was employed to fully convert ZnAl-CO layered double hydroxide (LDH) precursor buffer layers to well intergrown ZIF-8 coatings. DC Polarization tests indicated that prepared ZIF-8 coatings showed the corrosive current 4 orders of magnitude lower than that of bare Al substrates, demonstrating that MOF materials were superb candidates for high-performance anticorrosion coatings.

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The key in preparing mixed matrix membranes for the desired gas separation is to rationally select a suitable combination of inorganic fillers and polymers and to develop fabrication techniques enabling formation of a continuous inorganic phase with dual transport pathway. Herein, we report the facile design of flexible poly[poly-(ethylene glycol) methacrylate-co-poly(ethylene glycol) dimethacrylate] membranes containing metal organic frameworks UiO-66 prepared from zirconium chloride and 2-aminoterephthalic and terephthalic acid varying in contents, shapes, and sizes. The surface chemistry effects of both polymer matrix and MOFs on permeability and selectivity were investigated. The bare polymer membrane exhibited a permeability for CO 2 of around 117 barrer and a selectivity of up to 15. Addition of glycidyl methacrylate in the polymerization mixture led to membranes that were modified with hexamethylenediamine to provide for basicity. However, this modification did not improve performance of the membranes. In contrast, addition 35 wt % UiO-66 octahedron enhanced both permeability and selectivity for CO 2 to about 205 barrer and 19, respectively. By adjusting the size and shape of UiO-66, the best hybrid membrane containing 35 wt % clusters of aggregated UiO-66 formed a close to continuous phase desirable for the dual transport mechanism and exhibited a 247% increase in CO 2 permeability up to 365 barrer.

Mild and efficient Fischer esterification reactions of lactic acid with a variety of straight chain aliphatic alcohols, cyclohexanol and benzyl alcohol were successfully performed using two novel Brønsted acidic ionic liquids that bear an aromatic sulfonic acid group on the imidazolium or pyridinium cation under ultrasound irradiation. These reactions carried out smoothly with good to excellent conversion rate (78-96%) and satisfactory yields (73-92%) in shorter reaction time (4-6h) at room temperature when the amount of ionic liquids was 20 mol%. These ionic liquids could be recovered readily and recycled five times without any significant loss in their catalytic activity.

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