Journal of Membrane Science最新文献

{"title":"Impact of membrane and electrolyte properties on the intensity of equilibrium electroconvection in electrodialysis","authors":"V.D. Ruleva ,&nbsp;K.V. Brizhan ,&nbsp;N.D. Pismenskaya ,&nbsp;M.A. Ponomar ,&nbsp;M.V. Sharafan ,&nbsp;K.G. Sabbatovskiy ,&nbsp;C. Jiang ,&nbsp;Y. Wang ,&nbsp;T. Xu ,&nbsp;V.V. Nikonenko","doi":"10.1016/j.memsci.2025.125004","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.memsci.2025.125004","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Electroconvection enhances mass transfer in electrodialysis, which allows reducing the area of expensive membranes. It is commonly believed that a significant increase in mass transfer can only be achieved through nonequilibrium electroconvection developing at overlimiting currents. However, Rubinstein and Zaltzman recently predicted theoretically that equilibrium electroconvection becomes unstable under certain conditions, and this can potentially cause an increase in mass transfer. In this work, this effect is investigated experimentally using three different anion-exchange membranes and two electrolytes (KCl and LiCl). It was found that an increase in the electrolyte concentration (from 0.02 M to 0.75 M) in the concentrate compartment of an electrodialysis cell leads to an increase in the limiting current by up to 37 %, provided that the solution in the diluate compartment has a constant concentration (0.02 M). This increase significantly exceeds the value that could be expected due to the increase in coion electrodiffusion transport through the membrane caused by the concentration increase in the concentrate compartment (&lt;6 %). It is established that the replacement of KCl with LiCl leads to earlier transition to unstable equilibrium electroconvection and more effective solution mixing. The presence of structural heterogeneities in membranes and an increase in zeta potential also contribute to enhancement of electroconvection.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":368,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Membrane Science","volume":"741 ","pages":"Article 125004"},"PeriodicalIF":9.0,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145692607","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Fabrication of high-performance thin film composite nanofiltration membrane with zwitterionic copolymer as an aqueous additive","authors":"Wentian Zhang ,&nbsp;Huan Xu ,&nbsp;Lichao Xia ,&nbsp;Shanshan Zhao","doi":"10.1016/j.memsci.2025.125017","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.memsci.2025.125017","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Thin film composite nanofiltration (NF) membranes have a wide range of applications in drinking water production and industrial wastewater treatment. However, their performance is constrained by the inherent trade-off between permeability and selectivity, which can be effectively alleviated by regulating interfacial polymerization (IP). In this study, a zwitterionic copolymer (ZPSA), synthesized via one-step free radical polymerization using sulfobetaine ([2-(methacryloyloxy)ethyl]dimethyl-(3-sulfopropyl)ammonium hydroxide) and allylamine hydrochloride monomers, was utilized as an aqueous additive to regulate the IP processes for the fabrication of high-performance NF membranes. Adding zwitterionic copolymer retarded the diffusion rate of piperazine monomers due to electrostatic interaction and steric hindrance, resulting in an ultra-thin and relatively loose polyamide selective layer with enhanced surface hydrophilicity. Notably, incorporating zwitterionic copolymer significantly improved water permeability and maintained high rejection of divalent anions. The optimized membrane (i.e., ZPSA-1.5) achieved a water permeability around 18.8 L m⁻² h⁻¹ bar⁻¹, which was threefold higher than that of the control membrane, along with 98.0 % Na₂SO₄ rejection. Additionally, the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy results suggest that the added hydrophilic ZPSA could hinder PIP diffusion rate and decrease its reaction rate at interface, which was further confirmed by molecular simulation. The ZPSA-regulated membrane enhanced water permeability while preserving salt rejection, demonstrating its potential for nanofiltration applications.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":368,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Membrane Science","volume":"741 ","pages":"Article 125017"},"PeriodicalIF":9.0,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145692608","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"From shear exfoliation to membrane fabrication: Scalable production of large-sized MXene for advanced separation membranes","authors":"Peng Zu ,&nbsp;Haoning Li ,&nbsp;Xiao Huang ,&nbsp;Xinyuan Zheng ,&nbsp;Guangming Yan ,&nbsp;Dongsheng Li ,&nbsp;Gang Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.memsci.2025.125077","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.memsci.2025.125077","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>High-quality MXene layers, as well as reliable preparation methods that can facilitate the production of MXene layers with controllable lateral dimensions, are of paramount importance for meeting the diverse requirements of multiple fields. Concurrently, increasing the yield of MXene layers to achieve large-scale manufacturing has become an urgent goal for both academic and industrial domains. Accordingly, this study presented, for the first time, an efficient strategy to employ a basic high-speed blender to prepare large-sized MXene layers via a cell-wall disruption method, which consisted of two modes: sub-high-speed (10000 rpm) and ultra-high-speed (35000 rpm). Under high-speed rotation, the blades exerted intense shear force on multilayer MXene, enabling the rapid preparation of both large-sized and small-sized MXene layers with yields of 89.2 % (sub-high-speed) and 99.1 % (ultra-high-speed), respectively. MXene layers obtained via sub-high-speed cell-wall disruption possessed a large average lateral dimension of 7.3 μm. In terms of both yield and layer size, this strategy surpassed most existing approaches. Subsequently, an innovative strategy for membrane assembly was developed. The prepared large-sized MXene layers were subjected to low-vacuum filtration to be assembled into a separation membrane (termed LM) with sub-nanometer channels characterized by fairly low mass transfer resistance. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations revealed that the effective interlayer spacing of the LM was 8.1 Å. Within the mass transfer channels, the hydration shell of Na⁺<strong>^.</strong>5H₂O remained almost unchanged, with merely a marginal increase in the average distance between the ion and the oxygen atoms of H₂O molecules. Moreover, the adsorption energy of Na⁺<strong>^.</strong>5H₂O in the sub-nanometer channels of the LM was comparatively low, with a value of only −1.36 eV. Consequently, in CR/NaCl separation, the LM exhibited an extremely high flux of 545.8 L m⁻² h⁻¹ and an outstanding dye/salt selectivity of 35.2. This work represents a significant breakthrough in addressing the major issues of low preparation efficiency and uncontrollable layer size in MXene production, thereby establishing a solid foundation for the large-scale preparation of MXene and its extensive application across various industrial sectors, especially in fabricating advanced separation membranes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":368,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Membrane Science","volume":"741 ","pages":"Article 125077"},"PeriodicalIF":9.0,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145787079","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Molecular welded interface engineering to synthesize covalent organic framework membranes for ultrafast molecular sieving","authors":"Junkai Gong ,&nbsp;Zhiwei Zhou ,&nbsp;Hao Wang ,&nbsp;Chuang Lei ,&nbsp;Qiangqiang Yang ,&nbsp;Xiaoguang Wang ,&nbsp;Lu Shao ,&nbsp;Yanqiu Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.memsci.2025.125040","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.memsci.2025.125040","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Covalent organic framework (COF)-based membranes exhibit exceptional potential for molecular separation owing to their well-defined nanoporosity, tailorable pore apertures, and high surface-to-volume ratios. However, achieving precise pore-size regulation remains a critical challenge in membrane design. Herein, we report a defect-engineering strategy for COF membranes through in-situ polydopamine (PDA) incorporation during interfacial polymerization. Dopamine undergoes oxidative self-polymerization in the <em>p</em>-phenylenediamine (Pa) aqueous phase, generating PDA that simultaneously reacts with Pa monomers and infiltrates TpPa-COF framework defects via Schiff-base chemistry. This dual-function modification not only repairs structural imperfections, but also introduces hydrophilic moieties that enhance surface wettability. The optimized PDA-TpPa membrane demonstrates superior separation performance, achieving 99 % rejection of organic dyes while maintaining a high water permeance of 117.3 L m⁻² h⁻¹ bar⁻¹. Furthermore, the membrane exhibits considerable permeance towards various organic solvents, notably for n-hexane, which reached as high as 337 L m⁻² h⁻¹ bar⁻¹. This work establishes a novel paradigm for fabricating high-performance COF membranes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":368,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Membrane Science","volume":"741 ","pages":"Article 125040"},"PeriodicalIF":9.0,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145787153","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"In-situ growth of CuBTC and PFOTES modification to fabricate superhydrophobic PVDF membranes for membrane absorption of CO2","authors":"Dan Han ,&nbsp;Huili Liu ,&nbsp;Huayan Chen ,&nbsp;Xihan Hu ,&nbsp;Yue Jia ,&nbsp;Chunri Wu ,&nbsp;Liang wang","doi":"10.1016/j.memsci.2025.125073","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.memsci.2025.125073","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Climate change is one of the major challenges facing the world, and reducing carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions is a crucial means of addressing global warming. Membrane CO₂ absorption technology integrates membrane technology with chemical absorption techniques, offering advantages such as flexible operation, low cost, low energy consumption, and ease of scale-up. The membrane contactor serves to separate the gas and liquid phases. When the membrane pores become wetted, the mass transfer resistance of CO₂ across the membrane increases rapidly. Therefore, improving the anti-wetting properties of the membrane material is fundamental to enhancing its CO₂ absorption capacity. Research findings indicate that through surface roughness analysis, contact angle measurements, and immersion testing, the composite PVDF membrane fabricated via in-situ growth of CuBTC and PFOTES modification exhibited superhydrophobic properties with a maximum contact angle of 156.77°. After 60 h of continuous operation, the CO₂ mass transfer rate of the composite membrane only decreased by 5.6 %, which is significantly lower than the 27.7 % decrease of the pristine PVDF membrane, demonstrating superior operational stability and anti-wetting properties. Meanwhile, under the optimal condition of 15 modification cycles, the CO₂ removal efficiency and mass transfer rate of the composite membrane were higher than those of the pristine membrane, achieving improved mass transfer performance.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":368,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Membrane Science","volume":"741 ","pages":"Article 125073"},"PeriodicalIF":9.0,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145787154","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Positively charged polyamide nanofiltration membrane via grafting a bis-pyridinium molecule for high-efficiency Mg2+/Li+ separation","authors":"Xiaohui Yi ,&nbsp;Shao-Lu Li ,&nbsp;Jun Xiao ,&nbsp;Niamat Ullah ,&nbsp;Hongfen Zuo ,&nbsp;Yunxia Hu ,&nbsp;Genghao Gong","doi":"10.1016/j.memsci.2026.125182","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.memsci.2026.125182","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Efficient separation Mg²⁺ and Li⁺ is crucial for lithium extraction from salt-lake brines because the two cations have very similar chemical and physical properties. In this work, we synthesized a novel bis-pyridinium amino monomer, 1,1'-(ethane-1,2-diyl)bis(3-aminopyridin-1-ium) (BAPE), and grafted it onto the PEI-TMC membrane surface. By regulating the BAPE grafting concentration, both the surface charge and effective pore size were systematically modulated. The optimized BAPE-grafted membranes exhibited a strongly positive zeta potential (19.9 mV at pH 7) and a water permeance of 24.5 LMH/bar, 4.4 times that of the pristine membrane, while maintaining a high MgCl₂ rejection of ∼98.6 % using a 1000 ppm MgCl₂ feed solution. Notably, a single filtration stage reduced the Mg²⁺/Li⁺ ratio from 20 in the feed to 0.48 in the permeate, corresponding to a high selectivity (S_{Mg²⁺/Li⁺}) of 41.6 (2000 ppm, Mg²⁺/Li⁺ ratio of 20). The modified membranes also demonstrated excellent long-term stability over 72 h. These results underscore the value of rational molecular design, introducing pyridinium functionality by surface grafting, as a promising route to high-performance nanofiltration membranes for brine with high Mg²⁺/Li⁺ ratios.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":368,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Membrane Science","volume":"743 ","pages":"Article 125182"},"PeriodicalIF":9.0,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146036883","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Enhancing electrodialysis acid recovery performance of highly anion-selective crosslink network of alkyl-bridged double-cage tetra-cations by tadpole-type ion modification","authors":"Dengyue Mao ,&nbsp;Jiaxin Zhang ,&nbsp;Xiuhua Li ,&nbsp;Yigang Yu","doi":"10.1016/j.memsci.2026.125126","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.memsci.2026.125126","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Electrodialysis (ED) acid recovery technology has become a research hotspot in waste acids reuse due to the advantages of low energy consumption, environmental friendliness and high efficiency. To develop anion exchange membranes (AEMs) with high acid-blocking capability and conductivity, a tailored series of n-alkylene-bridged di-tertiary-amines (named DDC_m, m represents the number of carbon atoms in the alkylene chains) had been used to build and tune the balance level between acid-blocking and conductivity of the derivate crosslinking topological networks (named QPAES-0.3DDC_m) containing n-alkylene-bridged double-cage tetra-cations in the presence of chloromethylated polyethersulfone as the backbone. The electrical properties of the optimized multi-cations crosslink topological network QPAES-0.3DDC₁₀ with specific nanophase-separated structure and initially balanced electric properties have been tuned flexibly by grafting various amounts of tadpole-type cations with strongly hydrophobic tails, giving crosslink AEMs of QPAES-xD-0.3DDC₁₀ (xD represents a certain grafting degree) with modified nanophases structures. Their structure, basic properties, electrical properties and ED acid recovery performance were systematically investigated. The results confirm that moderate grafting endows QPAES-0.3D-0.3DDC₁₀ co-aggregate mono nanophase structure, offering the best selectivity and conductivity among the tailored AEMs. In ED H₂SO₄ recovery competitions at 40 mA cm⁻² - 80 mA cm⁻² and various ED times, QPAES-0.3D-0.3DDC₁₀ always surpasses commercial acid-blocking ACM in current efficiency and energy consumption. These above results clear that the strategy of tuning the aggregate phases of multi-cations crosslinked basic topological network by tadpole-type cation grafting is efficient to balance acid-blocking capability and conductivity, revealing its potential in ED acid recovery application.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":368,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Membrane Science","volume":"742 ","pages":"Article 125126"},"PeriodicalIF":9.0,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145941159","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Ultra-selective CANAL polymers for hydrogen-based membrane separations after long-term aging","authors":"Jing Ying Yeo ,&nbsp;Brandon C. Tapia ,&nbsp;Francesco M. Benedetti ,&nbsp;Ashley M. Robinson ,&nbsp;Julian Richardson ,&nbsp;Benjamin J. Pedretti ,&nbsp;Tae Hoon Lee ,&nbsp;Benny D. Freeman ,&nbsp;Yan Xia ,&nbsp;Zachary P. Smith","doi":"10.1016/j.memsci.2025.125038","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.memsci.2025.125038","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Hydrogen is a critically important molecule in the chemicals and energy industries, driving the need for efficient purification technologies such as membrane-based separations. However, polymer membranes often suffer from physical aging, leading to decreased gas permeability over time. This study leverages the unique aging behavior of contorted microporous polymers, synthesized via catalytic arene-norbornene annulation (CANAL) polymerization, to enhance molecular sieving for H₂ separations. While prior studies demonstrated a 1000 % increase in H₂/CH₄ selectivity with minimal H₂ permeability loss over 150 days, we extend this investigation to hyperaged (∼1 year) CANAL polymers and evaluate their performance under various conditions of industrial relevance. We report a remarkable 6100 % increase in H₂/CH₄ selectivity and a 2400 % improvement in H₂/N₂ selectivity, with only a 55 % decline in H₂ permeability. These membranes exhibit excellent long-term stability in binary and ternary gas mixtures and at elevated temperatures. Additionally, extended aging enhances H₂/CO₂ selectivity beyond the 2008 upper bound due to improved size-sieving. High-temperature permeation experiments and grand canonical Monte Carlo simulations reveal that H₂ permeability increases from 570 to 3500 barrer as the temperature rises from 35 °C to 190 °C, while H₂/CO₂ selectivity declines from 14 to 3 due to the higher diffusion activation energy of CO₂. Despite this tradeoff, hyperaged CANAL membranes maintain performance beyond the 200 °C upper bound, having selectivity–permeability performance comparable to many state-of-the-art membranes for H₂/CO₂ separations. This study highlights the robustness and industrial viability of ultra-selective CANAL polymers for hydrogen purification, contributing to advancements in clean energy and sustainable separation technologies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":368,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Membrane Science","volume":"742 ","pages":"Article 125038"},"PeriodicalIF":9.0,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145941167","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Long-term stability and mixed-salt effect of MXene/vermiculite membranes for ion separation","authors":"Teng-Xuan Cao ,&nbsp;Wangwang Ji ,&nbsp;Yumei Tan ,&nbsp;Hao-Cheng Li ,&nbsp;Yi-Lu Zhang ,&nbsp;Bin Wang ,&nbsp;Zifeng Lin ,&nbsp;Rui Xie ,&nbsp;Xiao-Jie Ju ,&nbsp;Wei Wang ,&nbsp;Da-Wei Pan ,&nbsp;Zhuang Liu ,&nbsp;Liang-Yin Chu","doi":"10.1016/j.memsci.2025.125041","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.memsci.2025.125041","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>MXene materials have demonstrated great potential for separation applications; however, their intrinsic instability severely limits their practical use. In this work, vermiculite nanosheets are uniformly incorporated into MXene membranes to enhance their long-term stability. This improvement is likely due to the negatively charged environment created by the vermiculite nanosheets, which weakens the polarization of C–Ti bonds in MXene and suppresses its oxidation. Stability tests reveal that MXene remains stable within the MXene/vermiculite membranes after heating at 200 °C in air for 2 h. In contrast, a pure MXene membrane is oxidized under the same conditions. In ion diffusion experiments, the membranes maintain stable transport of monovalent ions such as Cs⁺ for more than ∼1000 h. The MX-60 % membrane exhibits the best separation performance, achieving ideal selectivity ratios of ∼27.8 for Li⁺/Cs⁺ and ∼39.5 for Li⁺/Mg²⁺. However, in mixed-ion systems, the separation behavior changes markedly—the Cs⁺/Li⁺ separation factor reverses to ∼5.2, indicating that Cs⁺ diffuses faster than Li⁺. This unexpected mixed-salt effect is attributed to ion-ion interactions that disrupt the ordered interlayer water structure, thereby influencing ion transport within the membrane channels. Overall, this work provides an effective strategy to enhance the stability of MXene-based membranes and reveals a notable mixed-ion effect that impacts the ion separation performance of MXene/vermiculite membranes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":368,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Membrane Science","volume":"741 ","pages":"Article 125041"},"PeriodicalIF":9.0,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145734572","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Using quercetin to anchor a novel Ce-doped acid to enhance the performance and chemical stability of proton exchange membranes","authors":"Zhongrui Lu,&nbsp;Zhuoran Yang,&nbsp;Xiaohang Li,&nbsp;Zhengwei Chang,&nbsp;Xiaoyang Jia,&nbsp;Shaojian He ,&nbsp;Jun Lin","doi":"10.1016/j.memsci.2026.125155","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.memsci.2026.125155","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Cerium compounds are extensively utilized to enhance the chemical stability of proton exchange membranes (PEMs) due to their efficient scavenging of free radicals; however, cerium ions can reduce the proton conductivity of PEMs and can migrate out of PEMs. In this work, we synthesized a novel compound, cerium phosphotungstate (CeHPW), which effectively reduces the solubility of Ce ions while simultaneously enhancing the proton conductivity of PEMs. Moreover, quercetin was employed to anchor Ce ions further, thereby obtaining water-insoluble QCeHPW. QCeHPW exhibits superior free radical scavenging ability compared to either CeO₂ or quercetin alone. Furthermore, the proton conductivity of sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone) (SPEEK) composite membrane containing 7.5 wt% QCeHPW in liquid water at 25 °C was 0.052 S cm⁻¹, which represents a 53 % improvement over the SPEEK control membrane (0.034 S cm⁻¹). The single-cell performance of this membrane is significantly better than that of SPEEK control membrane. In addition, compared to SPEEK membranes doped with quercetin or CeO₂, the decay rate of the open-circuit voltage (OCV) for this membrane is lower.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":368,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Membrane Science","volume":"742 ","pages":"Article 125155"},"PeriodicalIF":9.0,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145974004","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}