Membrane Technology

New Membrane Technology Forum speaker named

The Membrane Technology Forum named its third speaker: Dr. Reza Foudazi, Associate Professor, University of Oklahoma, who will speak about Synthesis of Antifouling Filtration Membranes. The event will take place on June 3 at 1:30 p.m.-2 p.m. during the event, presented by Dairy Foods and ADPI, and taking place at the DoubleTree in Bloomington, Minn.

We produce controlled nanostructured membranes from crosslinking of self-assembled diacrylated poloxamer. At sufficiently high concentrations, poloxamers form lyotropic phases, such as lamellar, cubic packing of spherical micelles, and hexagonal (H1) packing of rod-like micelles. These mesophases have a periodic structure with a domain size of 2-50 nm. The normal oil-in-water hexagonal packing of rod-like micelles can be used as a template to produce orderly packed nanofiber membranes. The obtained nanostructure has a continuous 3D transport pathway.

This study presents a polymerized mesophase with H1 structure, which can alter its transport properties in response to changes in temperature and pH. The formulation includes diacrylated poloxamers, which are thermoresponsive components acting as both macromer and structure-directing amphiphile. Therefore, the membrane pore size changes with temperature when is in contact with water.

Furthermore, the precursor contains acrylic acid (AAc) as the charged component, which upon copolymerization with diacrylated poloxamers, not only enables ion separation through Donnan exclusion, but also imparts pH-responsive behavior for the separation of ionic species. We show that the nanostructured polymer can be used as a nanofiltration membrane with separation properties adjustable with temperature and pH. The membrane also has an exceptional resistance to fouling by various solutes due to its highly hydrophilic surface.

Find more information or register today to attend The Membrane Technology Forum.