Membrane filtration systems such as ultrafiltration are used in a variety of applications and industries, including chemical processing and pharmaceuticals, the food and beverage industry, and in water treatment. Ultrafiltration systems are a class of membranes in which the pore size is below the microscale. Thus, they are also commonly used for macromolecular solution processing and research, such as in work with separations in protein solutions. However, current systems suffer from fouling by particulate deposition, scaling, and biofouling; they have complexity in fabrication and design depending on application, thus high costs; and they demonstrate slow filtration time (low flux).Current literature has combated the complexity in ultrafilter fabrication by use of crosslinked block copolymers (BCPs) meshes. Our group has studied self-assembly in crosslinked hydrogel networks, and we have found that they offer highly tunable mechanical and rheological properties based on fabrication and processing of the materials. We are utilizing BCP hydrogel networks which self assemble into crosslinked micellar systems. This serves as the base design for an improved ulfratiltration membrane which addresses the shortcomings of current filters by improving fouling resistance, flux, and consistency in pore size distributions for improved membrane selectivity. Progress towards this end incorporates photoactive molecules within the BCP polymer matrix, integrating the ability to selectivity install and remove the filtration mesh in situ to combat excessive fouling.

Fouling reversal and tunability in micellar ultrafiltration membrane assemblies

248th National Meeting (2014)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.