Research activity information

• Oct. 2024 American Institute of Chemical Engineers, AIChE Separations Division Graduate Student Research Award for Membrane-Based Separations

• Engineering surface charges of nanofiltration membranes to maximizeLi⁺/Mg²⁺ separation properties

  Sagnik Das, Erda Deng, Aubrey E. Quigley, Lingxiang Zhu, Jada V. Mowatt, Kai Chen, Benny D. Freeman, Haiqing Lin

  Elsevier BV, Jan. 2026, Journal of Membrane Science, 738, 124757 - 124757

  Scientific journal


• Nanofiltration Membranes for Li⁺/Mg²⁺ Separation: Materials and Mechanisms

  Sagnik Das, Erda Deng, Ameya Manoj Tandel, Shweta Singh, Jada V. Mowatt, Haiqing Lin

  ABSTRACT Nanofiltration (NF) membranes have garnered significant interest for Li⁺/Mg²⁺ separation, a crucial step in lithium extraction from brines. The state‐of‐the‐art commercial LiNE‐XD membrane exhibits a Li⁺/Mg²⁺ separation factor (SF_Li/Mg) of 42 at pH 3.3, due to the positive charges on the membrane surface and its strong size‐sieving ability. Membranes with higher separation factors at a broad pH range are being pursued to improve separation efficiency. This review aims to provide a timely and comprehensive assessment of advanced NF membranes with superior Li⁺/Mg²⁺ separation properties, as well as their structure and property relationships for designing next‐generation membranes. We describe transport mechanisms for ions in NF membranes and discuss governing parameters and models employed to quantify the Li⁺/Mg²⁺ separation. High‐performance membrane materials are exhaustively introduced, including commercial and modified polyamides, two‐dimensional materials, metal–organic frameworks, crown ethers, and their blends. Finally, we critically compare these membranes in an upper bound plot and highlight the opportunities and challenges of NF membranes for practical Li⁺/Mg²⁺ separations.

  Wiley, Oct. 2025, Journal of Polymer Science

  Scientific journal


• Polydimethylsiloxane nanofilm-enhanced membrane contactors for CO₂ capture

  Erda Deng, Vinh Bui, Farhang Pazanialenjareghi, Sagnik Das, Haiqing Lin

  Elsevier BV, Oct. 2025, Separation and Purification Technology, 135713 - 135713

  Scientific journal


• Submicron Films of Polymer Blends: Unlocking Microphase Separation to Enhance Membrane Gas Separation Properties

  Narjes Esmaeili, Leiqing Hu, Erda Deng, Vinh Bui, Haiqing Lin

  American Chemical Society (ACS), Sep. 2025, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 17(40) (40), 56603 - 56611

  Scientific journal


• Synergistically combining peracetic acid and reduced graphene oxide membranes to degrade trace organic contaminants

  Erda Deng, Zachary T. Kralles, Siavash Mohamadi, Sagnik Das, Ruveen Dias, Ning Dai, Haiqing Lin

  Elsevier BV, Aug. 2025, Chemical Engineering Journal, 517, 164302 - 164302

  Scientific journal


• High-Performance Ti₃C₂T_x-MXene/Mycelium Hybrid Membrane for Efficient Lead Remediation: Design and Mechanistic Insights

  Mruganka Sandip Parasnis, Yu Fu, Erda Deng, Anthony Butler, Chu Te Chen, Ruveen Dias, Haiqing Lin, Fei Yao, Prathima C. Nalam

  American Chemical Society (ACS), Jan. 2025, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 17(5) (5), 7838 - 7848

  Scientific journal


• Atomically Fine-Tuning Organic–Inorganic Carbon Molecular Sieve Membranes for Hydrogen Production

  Leiqing Hu, Won-Il Lee, Kai Chen, Soumyabrata Roy, Kieran Fung, Kim Kisslinger, Erda Deng, Yifu Ding, Pulickel M. Ajayan, Chang-Yong Nam, Haiqing Lin

  American Chemical Society (ACS), Jan. 2025, ACS Nano, 19(4) (4), 4663 - 4671

  Scientific journal


• Bottlebrush Polymers of Poly(1,3-dioxolane) Acetate for Membrane CO₂/N₂ Separation

  Fathy Attia, Thien Tran, Vinh Bui, Bhanuprakash Valluri, Erda Deng, Gengyi Zhang, Narjes Esmaeili, Liang Huang, Haiqing Lin

  American Chemical Society (ACS), Sep. 2024, Chemistry of Materials, 36(19) (19), 9603 - 9612

  Scientific journal


• Scalable Graphene Oxide Hollow Fiber Membranes for Dye Desalination Enabled by Multi‐Purpose Polyamine Functionalization

  Ameya Manoj Tandel, Manas Agarwal, Erda Deng, Lingxiang Zhu, Kaleb Friedman, Miao Yu, Chong Cheng, Haiqing Lin

  Abstract 2D nanosheets such as graphene oxide (GO) can be stacked to construct membranes with fine‐tuned nanochannels to achieve molecular sieving ability. These membranes are often thin to achieve high water permeance, but their fabrication with consistent nanostructures on a large scale presents an enormous challenge. Herein, GO‐based hollow fiber membranes (HFMs) are developed for dye desalination by synergistically combining chemical etching to form in‐plane nanopores (10–30 nm) to increase water permeance and polyamine functionalization to improve underwater stability and enable facile large‐scale production using existing membrane manufacturing processes. HFM modules with areas of 88 cm² and GO layer thicknesses of ≈500 nm are fabricated, and they exhibited a stable dye water permeance of 75 L m⁻² h⁻¹ bar⁻¹, rejection of >99.5% for Direct red and Congo red, and Na₂SO₄/dye separation factor of 300–500, superior to state‐of‐the‐art commercial membranes. The versatility of this approach is also demonstrated using different short polyamines and porous substrates. This study reveals a scalable way of designing 2D materials into high‐performance robust membranes for practical applications.

  Wiley, Sep. 2024, Small, 20(48) (48)

  Scientific journal


• In situ oxidation of reduced graphene oxide membranes by peracetic acid for dye desalination

  Erda Deng, Kai Chen, Aubrey E. Quigley, Mengqi Yuan, Lingxiang Zhu, Zachary T. Kralles, Benny D. Freeman, Ning Dai, Haiqing Lin

  Elsevier BV, Jul. 2024, Journal of Membrane Science, 707, 122991 - 122991

  Scientific journal


• Heavy Metal Remediation by Dry Mycelium Membranes: Approaches to Sustainable Lead Remediation in Water

  Mruganka Sandip Parasnis, Erda Deng, Mengqi Yuan, Haiqing Lin, Katarzyna Kordas, Anna Paltseva, Emmanuel Frimpong Boamah, Alexandra Judelsohn, Prathima C. Nalam

  American Chemical Society (ACS), Mar. 2024, Langmuir, 40(12) (12), 6317 - 6329

  Scientific journal


• Low-Loading Mixed Matrix Materials: Fractal-Like Structure and Peculiarly Enhanced Gas Permeability

  Taliehsadat Alebrahim, Liang Huang, Heshali K. Welgama, Narjes Esmaeili, Erda Deng, Shiwang Cheng, Durga Acharya, Cara M. Doherty, Anita J. Hill, Clayton Rumsey, Martin Trebbin, Timothy R. Cook, Haiqing Lin

  American Chemical Society (ACS), Feb. 2024, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 16(8) (8), 11116 - 11124

  Scientific journal


• Few-cycle atomic layer deposition to nanoengineer polybenzimidazole for H2/CO2 separation

  Leiqing Hu, Won-Il Lee, Ashwanth Subramanian, Erda Deng, Kim Kisslinger, Shouhong Fan, Vinh T. Bui, Yifu Ding, Chang-Yong Nam, Haiqing Lin

  Elsevier BV, Jan. 2024, Chemical Engineering Journal, 479, 147401 - 147401

  Scientific journal


• Ultrathin polyorganosilica membranes synthesized by oxygen-plasma treatment of polysiloxanes for H2/CO2 separation

  Vinh Bui, Varun R. Satti, Elizabeth Haddad, Leiqing Hu, Erda Deng, Lingxiang Zhu, Won-Il Lee, Yifan Yin, Kim Kisslinger, Yugang Zhang, Thomas T. Bui, B. Medini Rajapakse, Luis Velarde, Chang-Yong Nam, Haiqing Lin

  Elsevier BV, Dec. 2023, Journal of Membrane Science, 688, 122099 - 122099

  Scientific journal


• Scalable synthesis of ultrathin MoS2 membranes for dye desalination

  Rodrigo Schneider, Ameya Manoj Tandel, Erda Deng, Daniel S. Correa, Haiqing Lin

  Elsevier BV, Nov. 2023, Journal of Membrane Science Letters, 3(2) (2), 100058 - 100058

  Scientific journal


• Modeling and mitigating fouling of microfiltration membranes for microalgae dewatering

  Erda Deng, Xiaoyi Chen, Darius Rub, Haiqing Lin

  Elsevier BV, Jun. 2023, Separation and Purification Technology, 315, 123707 - 123707

  Scientific journal


• Ultrathin-film composite (uTFC) membranes based on amorphous perfluoropolymers for liquid separations

  Ameya Manoj Tandel, Nicholas Rawda, Erda Deng, Haiqing Lin

  Elsevier BV, Dec. 2022, Journal of Membrane Science, 663, 121015 - 121015

  Scientific journal


• Energy-efficient membranes for microalgae dewatering: Fouling challenges and mitigation strategies

  Erda Deng, Xiaoyi Chen, Darius Rub, Thien N. Tran, Haiqing Lin

  Elsevier BV, Sep. 2022, Separation and Purification Technology, 296, 121382 - 121382

  Scientific journal


• Engineering hierarchical nanochannels in graphene oxide membranes by etching and polydopamine intercalation for highly efficient dye recovery

  Xiaoyi Chen, Erda Deng, Xiaoci Lin, Ameya Manoj Tandel, Darius Rub, Lingxiang Zhu, Liang Huang, Haiqing Lin

  Elsevier BV, Apr. 2022, Chemical Engineering Journal, 433, 133593 - 133593

  Scientific journal


• Thin-film composite membranes based on hyperbranched poly(ethylene oxide) for CO2/N2 separation

  Gengyi Zhang, Thien N. Tran, Liang Huang, Erda Deng, Adrienne Blevins, Wenji Guo, Yifu Ding, Haiqing Lin

  Elsevier BV, Feb. 2022, Journal of Membrane Science, 644, 120184 - 120184

  Scientific journal


• Grafting Activated Graphene Oxide Nanosheets onto Ultrafiltration Membranes Using Polydopamine to Enhance Antifouling Properties

  Xiaoyi Chen, Erda Deng, Dongwon Park, Blaine A. Pfeifer, Ning Dai, Haiqing Lin

  American Chemical Society (ACS), Sep. 2020, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 12(42) (42), 48179 - 48187

  Scientific journal