During the production of oil and gas, a large amount of oily wastewater is generated, which would pollute the environment if discharged without proper treatment. As one of the most promising treatment options, membrane material used for oily wastewater treatment should possess desirable properties of high hydraulic performance combined with high membrane fouling resistance. This project employs the vapor induced phase separation (VIPS) technique to develop a hydrophilic polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membrane with polyethylene glycol (PEG) as an additive for produced water treatment. Results show that thanks to its slow nonsolvent intake, the VIPS method hinders additive leaching during the cast film immersion. The results also reveal that the exposure of the film to the open air before immersion greatly influences the structure of the developed membranes. By extending the exposure time from 0 to 30 min, the membrane morphology change from typical asymmetric with large macrovoids to the macrovoid-free porous symmetric membrane with a granular structure, which corresponds to 35% increment of steady-state permeability to 189 L·m⁻²h⁻¹bar⁻¹, while maintaining >90% of oil rejection. It was also found that more PEG content resides in the membrane matrix when the exposure time is extended, contributes to the elevation of surface hydrophilicity, which improves the membrane antifouling properties. Overall results demonstrate the potential of VIPS method for the fabrication of hydrophilic PVDF membrane by helping to preserve hydrophilic additive in the membrane matrices.

Membrane fouling is seen as the main culprit that hinders the widespread of membrane application in liquid-based filtration. Therefore, fouling management is key for the successful implementation of membrane processes, and it is done across all magnitudes. For optimum operation, membrane developments and surface modifications have largely been reported, including membrane surface patterning. Membrane surface patterning involves structural modification of the membrane surface to induce secondary flow due to eddies, which mitigate foulant agglomeration and increase the effective surface area for improved permeance and antifouling properties. This paper reviews surface patterning approaches used for fouling mitigation in water and wastewater treatments. The focus is given on the pattern formation methods and their effect on overall process performances.

Microplastics (MPs) are increasingly recognized as widespread environmental contaminants, with confirmed presence in human tissues and biological fluids through ingestion, inhalation, and direct systemic exposure. Their potential impacts on human health have become an important subject of scientific investigation. The detection and quantification of MPs, particularly nanoplastics, in complex biological matrices remain challenging because of their low concentrations, diverse physicochemical properties, and interference from organic and inorganic matter. This review presents a critical assessment of current methods for the separation and detection of MPs from human-relevant samples. It examines pre-treatment, separation, and analytical approaches including physical filtration, density-based separation, chemical and enzymatic digestion, vibrational spectroscopy, thermal analysis, and electron microscopy, highlighting their principles, advantages, and limitations. Key challenges such as low sample throughput, absence of standardized procedures, and the difficulty of nanoplastic detection are identified as major barriers to accurate exposure assessment and risk evaluation. Recent advances, including functionalized adsorbents, improved anti-fouling membranes, integrated microfluidic systems, and artificial intelligence-assisted spectral analysis, are discussed for their potential to provide sensitive, scalable, and standardized analytical workflows. By integrating current challenges with recent innovations, this review aims to guide multidisciplinary research toward the development of reliable and reproducible detection strategies that can support MPs exposure assessment and inform evidence-based health policies.

The poly deep eutectic solvents (PDESs), a potential substituent to ionic liquids, have emerged as relatively new material and have been successfully applied in catalysis, nanotechnology, and, more importantly, in gas separation. Herein, the PDESs were incorporated for the first time in the CO₂ capturing membranes to exploit their inherent advantages in the acid gas capture. The PDESs were synthesized by mixing choline chloride (hydrogen bond acceptor-HBA) and two hydrogen bond donors-HBDs (polyacrylic acid and polyacrylamide) separately in different molar ratios. The physical changes of the resulting homogeneous mixture along with the Fourier Transform Infrared confirmed the successful synthesis of the PDESs. Afterward, these PDESs were impregnated into microporous polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membrane support to fabricate supported liquid membranes (SLMs). The gas performance of the prepared PDES-SLMs was tested under pure and mixed-gas conditions for CO₂, CH₄, and N₂. The PDES-SLMs showed a significantly high CO₂/CH₄ and CO₂/N₂ selectivities of the order of 55.5 and 60, respectively. To evaluate their practical implication, the SLMs were investigated systematically under different operating conditions such as choline content, temperature, volume fraction of the CO₂ in the feed, and the activation energy required for CO₂ capture. The synthesized SLMs showed exceptional results in both permeability and selectivity viewpoint. The remarkable SLMs gas performance can be ascribed to the basicity, molar free volume, and the H-bonding strength of the synthesized PDESs. The green potential, low cost, and the promising gas separation performance make theses PDESs a favorable alternative to the competing PILs in capturing the greenhouse acid gases.

Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) are emerging crystalline polymeric materials with highly ordered intrinsic and uniform pores. Their synthesis involves reticular chemistry, which offers the freedom of choosing building precursors from a large bank with distinct geometries and functionalities. The pore sizes of COFs, as well as their geometry and functionalities, can be pre-designed, giving them an immense opportunity in various fields. In this mini-review, we will focus on the use of COFs in the removal of environmentally hazardous metal ions and chemicals through adsorption and separation. The review will introduce basic aspects of COFs and their advantages over other purification materials. Various fabrication strategies of COFs will be introduced in relation to the separation field. Finally, the challenges of COFs and their future perspectives in this field will be briefly outlined.