Enhanced Membrane Properties by Membrane Surface Modification and Functionalization

The aim of this Special Issue is to collect original research papers or reviews which report the recent efforts and progresses obtained in the membrane surface modification. The surface modification and functionalization can be obtained by coating, self-assembly, chemical treatment, plasma treatment, and surface graft polymerization. Today, the demand of membranes with specific properties is increasing in many industrial fields, such as gas separation, water treatment, biomedical, microelectronics, molecular recognition, etc. Almost 50% of all MF and UF membranes on the market were surface modified. Considering that the membrane performances also depend on the surface properties, more attention has been given to the modification of the surfaces. The goal of surface modification is to minimize the adsorption or the adhesion which reduce the fouling formation, or to introduce new membrane properties (affinity or catalytic) as a way of improving the selectivity or creating an entirely novel separation function.