Fishing ions: this review provides a comprehensive analysis of different approaches in utilizing capacitive deionization (CDI) for selective ion separations and ion removal.

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The global society is in a transition, where dealing with climate change and water scarcity are important challenges. More efficient separations of chemical species are essential to reduce energy consumption and to provide more reliable access to clean water. Here, membranes with advanced functionalities that go beyond standard separation properties can play a key role. This includes relevant functionalities, such as stimuli-responsiveness, fouling control, stability, specific selectivity, sustainability, and antimicrobial activity. Polyelectrolytes and their complexes are an especially promising system to provide advanced membrane functionalities. Here, we have reviewed recent work where advanced membrane properties stem directly from the material properties provided by polyelectrolytes. This work highlights the versatility of polyelectrolyte-based membrane modifications, where polyelectrolytes are not only applied as single layers, including brushes, but also as more complex polyelectrolyte multilayers on both porous membrane supports and dense membranes. Moreover, free-standing membranes can also be produced completely from aqueous polyelectrolyte solutions allowing much more sustainable approaches to membrane fabrication. The Review demonstrates the promise that polyelectrolytes and their complexes hold for next-generation membranes with advanced properties, while it also provides a clear outlook on the future of this promising field.

We present a novel microfluidic EDGE (Edge based Droplet GEneration) device with regularly spaced micron-sized partitions, which is aimed at upscaling of o/w emulsion preparation. By this means, remarkably higher pressure stability was obtained, and two orders of magnitude higher droplet formation frequency was achieved compared to regular EDGE devices. Interestingly, we observed two different monodisperse droplet formation regimes for plateaus that were 2 micrometres in height, and to the best of our knowledge, no other microfluidic device has this ability. The average diameters of the droplets were 9 and 28 μm, both with a coefficient of variation (CV) below 5%. Based on the experimental throughput and a plausible mass parallelization scenario, the amount of hexadecane that can be emulsified is estimated to be between 6 and 25 m(3) m(-2) h(-1) depending on the required droplet size. With its high throughput potential and ability to produce uniform droplets of two different sizes, the partitioned EDGE device is promising for industrial emulsion production.

Capacitive deionization (CDI) is a desalination technique that can be applied for the separation of target ions from water streams. For instance, mono- and divalent cation selectivities were studied by other research groups in the context of water softening. Another focus is on removing Na + from recirculated irrigation water (IW) in greenhouses, aiming to maintain nutrients. This is important as an excess of Na + has toxic effects on plant growth by decreasing the uptake of other nutrients. In this study, we investigated the selective separation of sodium (Na + ) and magnesium (Mg 2+ ) in MCDI using a polyelectrolyte multilayer (PEM) on a standard grade cation-exchange membrane (Neosepta, CMX). Alternating layers of poly(allylamine hydrochloride) (PAH) and poly(styrene sulfonate) (PSS) were coated on a CMX membrane (CMX-PEM) using the layer-by-layer (LbL) technique. The layer formation was examined with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and static water contact angle measurements (SWA) for each layer. For each membrane, i.e., the CMX-PEM membrane, CMX membrane, and for a special-grade cation-exchange membrane (Neosepta, CIMS), the Na + /Mg 2+ selectivity was investigated by performing MCDI experiments, and selectivity values of 2.8 ± 0.2, 0.5 ± 0.04, and 0.4 ± 0.1 were found, respectively, over up to 40 cycles. These selectivity values indicate flexible switching from a Mg 2+ -selective membrane to a Na + -selective membrane by straightforward modification with a PEM. We anticipate that our modular functionalization method may facilitate the further development of ion-selective membranes and electrodes.

The fact that interactions of components with interfaces can influence processes is well-known; e.g. deposit accumulation on heat exchangers and membrane fouling lead to additional resistances against heat and mass transfer, respectively. In microfluidic emulsification, the situation is even more complex. Component accumulation at the liquid/liquid interface is necessary for emulsion stability, while undesired at the solid/liquid interface where it may change wettability. For successful emulsification both aspects need to be controlled, and that is investigated in this paper for o/w emulsification with microfluidic EDGE devices. These devices were characterised previously, and can be used to detect small wettability changes through e.g. the pressure stability of the device. We used various oil/emulsifier combinations (alkanes, vegetable oil, surfactants and proteins) and related droplet size and operational pressure stability to component interactions with the solid surface and liquid interface. Surfactants with a strong interaction with glass always favour emulsification, while surfactants that have week interactions with the surface can be replaced by vegetable oil that interacts strongly with glass, resulting in loss of emulsification. Our findings clearly show that an appropriate combination of construction material and emulsion components is needed to achieve successful emulsification in microfluidic EDGE devices.

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