Block copolymer templated crazing for membrane separation
AssigneeThe University of Southern Mississippi
InventorsXiaodan Gu, Daniel Weller
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A porous composite ultrafiltration membrane including a block copolymer layer having (a) one or more soft block polymer(s) having an elongation at break of greater than about 50%, as measured by ASTM D638 and an elastic modulus of between 10 MPa to 3 GPa as measured by the ASTM D638 tensile test; and (b) one or more hard block polymer(s) having an elongation at break of less than about 65%, as measured by ASTM D638, and an elastic modulus of higher than 1 GPa as measured by the ASTM D638 tensile test, and a macroporous support layer having a pore size larger than a pore size of the block copolymer layer. Also described is a method for making the porous composite membrane.
Claims16
A porous composite ultrafiltration membrane comprising:
- a block copolymer layer having a thickness of not more than about 500 nm, comprising
- a) one or more soft block polymer(s) having an elongation at break of greater than about 50%, as measured by ASTM D638 and an elastic modulus of between 10 MPa to 3 GPa as measured by the ASTM D638 tensile test;
- and
- b) one or more hard block polymer(s) having an elongation at break of less than about 65%, as measured by ASTM D638, and an elastic modulus of higher than 1 GPa as measured by the ASTM D638 tensile test;
- and
- c) a macroporous support layer having a pore size larger than a pore size of the block copolymer layer, and
- wherein tensile strain is applied to a composite membrane including elements a-c) to cause craze formation and form the porous composite ultrafiltration membrane.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.