LAUSR

A tree-type cylindrical-shaped nanoporous filtering membrane is proposed. Across the thickness of this membrane are manufactured two kinds of pores i.e. one trunk pore and four uniform branch pores, these two kinds of pores have the same homogeneous surface property and are linked together, and they are uniformly distributed on the membrane surface; The branch pore is for filtration and its radius is on the 1nm or 10nm scales, while the trunk pore is for collecting the flow coming from its four branch pores and it is aimed for reducing the flow resistance and increasing the flux of the membrane; The radius of the trunk pore is determined according to the radius of its branch pore. An analysis is presented for calculating the flow resistance of this membrane. It was found that the membrane thickness, the radius of the branch pore and the filtered liquid-pore interaction strength have great influences on the flow resistance of the membrane. It was also found that this membrane can be used for a liquid-liquid separation when one liquid has a weak interaction with the filtering pore, while the other liquids in the mixture have strong interactions with the filtering pore. It is evaluated that the proposed membrane has good performance characteristics including the ultimate filtration capability, the flux rate and the mechanical strength.