Hydrophilic polymeric phase inversion membrane
First Claim
1. A process for rendering hydrophilic a separation membrane having a hydrophobic matrix polymer comprising preparing a membrane solvent system, said system comprising a hydrophobic bulk matrix polymer which absorbs less than 0.5% of its weight of water over a 24 hour period and 4% or less of its weight of water at equilibrium, and a block copolymer wetting agent having hydrophobic and hydrophilic polymer units, and doping said membrane solvent system with γ
- -butyrolactone additive which is compatible with the bulk matrix polymer and which is capable of positioning the hydrophilic portion of the block copolymer at the matrix-solvent interface during membrane preparation, such that the resulting membrane is substantially instantaneously wetted as compared to the wetting rate of the same membrane solvent system without the γ
-butyrolactone additive.
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Abstract
A process for rendering hydrophilic a separation membrane having a hydrophobic matrix polymer comprises doping the membrane solvent system with a cyclic ester additive which is compatible with the matrix polymer and adding a wetting agnet additive, such that the resulting membrane is instantaneously wetted. The invention further relates to the membrne formed in accord with this process.
220 Citations
11 Claims
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1. A process for rendering hydrophilic a separation membrane having a hydrophobic matrix polymer comprising preparing a membrane solvent system, said system comprising a hydrophobic bulk matrix polymer which absorbs less than 0.5% of its weight of water over a 24 hour period and 4% or less of its weight of water at equilibrium, and a block copolymer wetting agent having hydrophobic and hydrophilic polymer units, and doping said membrane solvent system with γ
- -butyrolactone additive which is compatible with the bulk matrix polymer and which is capable of positioning the hydrophilic portion of the block copolymer at the matrix-solvent interface during membrane preparation, such that the resulting membrane is substantially instantaneously wetted as compared to the wetting rate of the same membrane solvent system without the γ
-butyrolactone additive. - View Dependent Claims (2, 4, 5)
- -butyrolactone additive which is compatible with the bulk matrix polymer and which is capable of positioning the hydrophilic portion of the block copolymer at the matrix-solvent interface during membrane preparation, such that the resulting membrane is substantially instantaneously wetted as compared to the wetting rate of the same membrane solvent system without the γ
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3. The process of claim 3 wherein the γ
- -butyrolactone is added as at least 7.5% of the membrane solvent system.
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6. An instantaneous wetting filtration membrane comprising a hydrophobic polymer in combination with a block copolymer wetting agent and γ
- -butyrolactone solvent additive, the additive being compatible with the matrix polymer and enhancing the capability of the wetting agent to render the matrix polymer hydrophilic and instantaneously wetted.
- View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
Specification