Preparation and permeability of solutes through acrylic acid‐g‐methylcellulose copolymer membranes

Abstract

SYNOPSISGraft copolymer membranes from the methylcellulose and the acrylic acid were prepared and their properties and the permeability of four solutes were estimated. Acrylic acid-gmethylcellulose ( AA-g-MC ) copolymer dissolved in aqueous acetone solvent was cast to prepare membranes followed by the subsequent crosslinking either with aluminium potassium sulfate or by the thermal-curing method. The equilibrium water content in the membrane increased with the volume fraction of acetone in the aqueous acetone solvent system. Membrane, the ionically crosslinked with the aluminum potassium sulfate, showed the water content in the range of 38.5 and 58.4% and 0.25-0.33 kg/mm2 of the tensile strength in the wet state. Compared with ionically crosslinked membranes, thermally dried membranes exhibited a more dense structure, resulting in lower water contents and higher mechanical strength. Experimental results on the permeation of four small and midsize solutes through the graft copolymer membranes revealed the molecular weight dependence of the permeability coefficient. The higher the degree of swelling, the greater the permeability coefficient. Ionically crosslinked membranes had higher solute permeability than the commercial Cuprophane membrane had. 0 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Characterization of Graft-Modified Porous Polymer Membranes

“…The principal aim of this characterization was to find out whether the modified membranes prepared by radiation-induced grafting show clearly detectable properties of variable permeability membranes. That kind of behavior of some membranes grafted with acrylic or methacrylic acid has been reported earlier (Osada et al, 1986;Ito et al, 1992;Islam et al, 1992;Huh et al, 1993). Therefore, the convective permeability of the membranes and the diffusion through the membrane was measured in different ionic strengths and at different pH.…”