Topic: Polymer base membranes for water remediation and energy storage applications

Lecturer: Professor S. Lanceros-Mendez

Time: May 14, 2026, 10:00-12:00, UTC+8

Venue: Lecture Hall, Center for Materials Research and Analysis, Western Campus

Organized by: Material Advantage WUT Chapter

Biography: S. Lanceros-Mendez is Ikerbasque Professor and Scientific Director at BCMaterials, Basque Center for Materials, Applications and Nanostructures, Leioa, Spain. He graduated in physics at the University of the Basque Country, Leioa, Spain, and obtained his Ph.D. degree at the Institute of Physics of the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, Germany. He was Research Scholar at Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, visiting scientist at the Pennsylvania State University, USA and University of Potsdam, and associate researcher at the INL - International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory, among others. He is also Professor at the Physics Department of the University of Minho, Portugal (on leave), where he also belongs to the Center of Physics of the University of Minho and Porto and the LaPMET - Laboratory of Physics for Materials and Emergent Technologies. His work is focused in the area of functional and multifunctional materials for sensors and actuators, energy, environmental and biomedical applications with over 1000 publications in the field. He has supervised over 70 PhD students, is mentor of 4 Spin-offs based on technologies developed in his group and has been PI or researcher in national and international projects, many of them with the industry. Finally, he is currently visiting professor at the Wuhan University of Technology and the Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Abstract: Multifunctional materials are a key driving force for the development of a wide variety of applications, playing a central role in the scope of the digitalization and circular economy paradigms. Active and multifunctional materials are also being increasingly implemented in water remediation and energy storage systems. These apparently unrelated application areas often rely on advanced membrane technology for the degradation and/or removal of contaminants, in the former case, and for the development of the battery separator membranes, in the latter. The successful development of the specific applications relies both in the ability tailor the functional response of the membrane, though the proper selection of matrix and active fillers, as well as on the fabrication technologies for obtaining a suitable membrane microstructure. Polymer based multifunctional materials processable from solution and/or by additive manufacturing technologies is an area of increasing interest due to improved sustainability, tailorability of materials properties and simple integration into functional applications. Relevant results, strategies and challenges in the development of membranes for the removal of heavy metals and degradation of contaminants of emerging content will be presented, together with the approaches to improve separator membranes for battery applications. The common ground of both application areas in terms of membrane development will be highlighted as well as the specificities leading to successful applications.

Rewritten by: Mei Mengqi

Edited by: Li Huihui, Li Tiantian

Source: International School of Materials Science and Engineering