A Versatile Approach Towards the Fast Fabrication of Highly-Permeable Polymer Mesoporous Membranes

Abstract

Polymer mesoporous materials have attracted increasing concerns in various fields especially in membrane separation process. Here we report a versatile approach to fabricate novel highly‐permeable polymer mesoporous membrane for size‐exclusion separation. This approach employs copper hydroxide nanowire thin films as the soluble templates to form a polymer mesoporous separation layer. The membrane formation mechanism is revealed by varying the polymer concentration, the thickness of template films and the size of nanowires. The resultant membranes have a three‐layer sandwich structure, allow fast permeation of water, and exhibit excellent size‐exclusion separation performances. Typically, the 1.39 µm‐thick membrane has a high water flux of 1.17 103 L m−2 h−1 bar−1 and rejections of 94.1 % for ferritin molecules. The developed approach have a great potential in the fabrication of polymer mesoporous materials, and produce the membranes have a wide range of applications including in environmental fields.

Comprehensive Study of Physicochemical Properties in Poly‐(Vinylidene Fluoride) Membranes Loaded with OPEFB's Lignin/ Lignosulfonate via Phase Inversion

“…[1,[3][4][5] Among various polymer membranes, polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) stands out due to its excellent separation performance, thermal stability, chemical resistance, radiation resistance, high mechanical strength, and low preparation cost. [6][7][8] Due to these properties, PVDF is frequently used not only in separation technology but also as a thermal insulator, a photocatalytic membrane, a binder for lithium-ion batteries, and an encapsulant for solar systems. [9][10][11][12][13][14] PVDF is a semicrystalline polymer with a crystallinity degree of 50-60 % in fluorine, exhibiting three main polymorphic phases: α (nonpolar), β (polar), and γ (semi-polar).…”

“…Membrane separation technology is often favored for its ease of operation, environmental friendliness, simple and efficient devices, low energy and time consumption, as well as high and continuous separation efficiency [1,3–5] . Among various polymer membranes, polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) stands out due to its excellent separation performance, thermal stability, chemical resistance, radiation resistance, high mechanical strength, and low preparation cost [6–8] . Due to these properties, PVDF is frequently used not only in separation technology but also as a thermal insulator, a photocatalytic membrane, a binder for lithium‐ion batteries, and an encapsulant for solar systems [9–14] .…”