Preparation of hollow fiber membranes involves more affecting factors than that of flat sheet membranes during membrane formation process. It is important to obtain a uniform hollow fiber in a production line. Recently, microfluidic spinning has attracted much attention in fiber fabrications. Unfortunately, microfluidic spinning of polyethersulfone hollow fiber membranes is still a challenging task. Especially, the relationship between the microfluidic spinning parameters and the microstructures of prepared polyethersulfone hollow fiber membranes still needs systematically investigation. Here, we develop a novel capillary-based co-axial microfluidic device for microfluidic spinning of polyethersulfone hollow fiber membranes.<br/>The polyethersulfone hollow fiber membranes are spinned in the microfluidic device with dope solution used as the middle phase, and 20% (w/w) PEG 20000 aqueous solution used as both the bore fluid and outer coagulation bath phases. The effects of fabrication conditions including microfluidic flowrates, PES concentration in dope fluid and operation temperature on the structures of microfluidic-fabricated PES hollow fiber membranes are investigated systematically. Ternary fluid-flow diagrams are created for fabricating PES hollow fiber membranes with different PES concentrations and operation temperatures. The results in this study provide valuable guidance for fabricating hollow fiber membranes with controllable microstructures and dimensions via microfluidic approach.

Microfluidic spinning of polyethersulfone hollow fiber membranes

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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