MEMBRANE COMPRISING SELF-ASSEMBLED BLOCK COPOLYMER AND PROCESS FOR PRODUCING THE SAME BY HYBRID CASTING (IIb)

A method of preparing a porous membrane comprising a block copolymer of the formula (I) or (II):

• wherein:
• R1 is a C1-C22 alkyl group optionally substituted with a substituent selected from halo, alkoxy, alkylcarbonyl, alkoxycarbonyl, amido, and nitro, or a C3-C11 cycloalkyl group, optionally substituted with a substituent selected from halo, alkoxy, alkylcarbonyl, alkoxycarbonyl, amido, and nitro;
• R2 is a C6-C20 aryl group or a heteroaryl group, optionally substituted with a substituent selected from hydroxy, nitro, amino, halo, alkoxy, alkylcarbonyl, alkoxycarbonyl, amido, and nitro;
• one of R3 and R4 is a C6-C14 aryl group, optionally substituted with a substituent selected from hydroxy, halo, amino, and nitro, and the other of R3 and R4 is a C1-C22 alkoxy group, optionally substituted with a substituent selected from carboxy, amino, mercapto, alkynyl, alkenyl, halo, azido, and heterocyclyl;
• n and m are independently about 10 to about 2000;
• 0<x≦n and 0<y≦m;
• the method comprising:
• (i) dissolving the block copolymer in a solvent system to obtain a polymer solution;
• (ii) coating the polymer solution onto a substrate;
• (iii) evaporating at least a portion of a solvent from the coating obtained in (ii);
• (iv) immersing the coating from (iii) into a coagulation bath;
• and
• (v) washing the porous membrane obtained in (iv).