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An electrochemical method for loading electroactive materials over the TEM grid is reported. The protocol has been demonstrated using polyaniline as an example. The electroactive polymer was directly deposited over the Au TEM grid, used as working electrode in a 3 electrode electrochemical cell. The undisturbed as-deposited morphologies under the influence of various counter ions and ex situ electrochemical states have been studied and compared. Contrary to behaviour in bulk the individual polyaniline fibre was found thinner at anodic potentials. The movement of counter ions as a function of the electrochemical state of the polymer was studied using STEM-EDX elemental mapping.

Pervaporation membrane technology is commercially successful in the dehydration of organic solvents, and the technology has potential for seawater desalination with high recovery because of its capability to treat highly saline water. But to make the technology advantageous over the other available membrane desalination technologies in terms of productivity flux without additional energy cost, the selective barrier layer is required to be extremely thin, defect-free, hydrophilic, and selective to water. In this work, we prepared an efficient membrane by reinforcing a highly water-permeable but continuous barrier layer of poly(vinyl alcohol)–silica (PVA-SiO2) hybrid material on porous polysulfone hollow fibers. The PVA-SiO2 in acidified and hydrated ethanol was aged at room temperature for a period to allow solvent evaporation to obtain the solution concentration desired for the reinforcement. The reinforced hollow fiber membrane with optimal PVA-SiO2 barrier layer thickness exhibited a performance with a flux of 20.6 L m−2 h−1 and 99.9% salt rejection from a saline feed of 2000 ppm NaCl at 333 K. The effects of PVA-SiO2, temperature, and feed salinity on the pervaporation performance of the membrane were also studied. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2017, 134, 45718