Bio-inspired fabrication of composite membranes with ultrathin polymer–silica nanohybrid skin layer

Crystalline and Spherulitic Morphology of Polymers Crystallized in Confined Systems

“…Confinement of polymer systems can be generally classified into three categories according to their confined environments, and they are one, two and three dimensions, respectively. Confined crystallization of polymers has been found in a variety of systems, such as polymer ultrathin films [1][2][3][4][5], polymer blends [6][7][8][9][10], block copolymers [11][12][13][14], polymer droplets [15][16][17], self-assembled polymer nanostructures [18][19][20][21][22], polymers segregated inside nanoporous templates [23][24][25][26][27][28][29] and polymer nanocomposites [30][31][32][33]. In the past few years, the crystallization of polymers or polymer segments confined in ultrathin films (thickness <100 nm), miscible polymer blends and block copolymers has been widely studied for various systems.…”

Exploring the limits of particle size for nanolatexes produced via monomer-starved semicontinuous emulsion polymerization

“…The decrease in particle size with increasing temperature, considered as a rule of thumb in emulsion polymerization [25], is because of a larger number of particles formed at higher T, which compete for a given amount of monomer added, as predicted by Eq. (2). Therefore, the unexpected increase in the particle size observed at T = 85°C remains to be explained.…”

“…The motives to produce extremely small polymeric nanoparticles have found great momentum in recent years due to their increasing application in ultrathin films, high performance coating materials, modified materials, adhesives, and semiconductors [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. For some applications, such as drug delivery nanocarriers used for penetrating various biological barriers within the human body, achieving a size as small as possible is vital [8].…”

Advances in polymeric membranes for water treatment

“…In addition, a platform called bio-mineralization or bio-mimetic mineralization was developed from the formation process of bio-silica (Pan, Jia, Cheng, & Jiang, 2010). Pan et al (2010) proposed an innovative procedure to fabricate a polymereinorganic skin layer of a composite membrane by combining bio-mimetic mineralization and polymer network structure manipulation. Pan et al (2010) proposed an innovative procedure to fabricate a polymereinorganic skin layer of a composite membrane by combining bio-mimetic mineralization and polymer network structure manipulation.…”