CAS Key Laboratory of Coastal Environmental Processes and Ecological Remediation, Research Center for Coastal Environmental Engineering and Technology of Shandong Province, Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Yantai, Shandong Province 264003, P. R. China.
State Key Laboratory of Separation Membranes and Membrane Processes, Tianjin Polytechnic University , Tianjin 300387, P. R. China.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2017 Sep 13;9(36):31018-31030. doi: 10.1021/acsami.7b06997. Epub 2017 Aug 29.
Recently, ultrafiltration (UF) membranes have faced great challenges including the fine control of membrane surfaces for high filtration performances and antifouling properties in treating complex solution systems. Here, a particular type of amphiphilic block copolymer polyethylene glycol-block-polysulfone-block-polyethylene glycol (PEG-b-PSf-b-PEG) was synthesized through one-pot step-growth polymerization with mPEG [monomethylpoly(ethylene glycol)] as two ends to achieve the mobility of hydrophilic polymer chains. Without any other polymers or additives involved, the PEG-b-PSf-b-PEG triblock copolymer UF membrane was fabricated through the non-solvent-induced phase separation (NIPS) method. The surface properties and filtration performances of UF membranes were tailored through the self-assembly of PEG-b-PSf-b-PEG triblock copolymers combining the thermal and solvent annealing treatments in water at 90 °C for 16 h. The annealed PEG-b-PSf-b-PEG triblock copolymer membrane significantly enhanced its water flux resulting from the increased mean pore size with the improved porosity, as well as the decreased skin layer thickness, upon annealing. More importantly, the PEG-b-PSf-b-PEG triblock copolymer membrane surface turned from hydrophobic to hydrophilic upon annealing with the PEG enrichment on the surface, and exhibited improved protein antifouling performances. Our research opens a new avenue to tailor the membrane structure and surface properties by self-assembly of amphiphilic block copolymers upon thermal and solvent annealing treatments.
最近，超滤（UF）膜面临着巨大的挑战，包括对膜表面进行精细控制，以在处理复杂溶液体系时获得高过滤性能和抗污染性能。在这里，通过一锅一步增长聚合，以 mPEG [单甲氧基聚（乙二醇）]为两端合成了一种特殊类型的两亲嵌段共聚物聚乙二醇-嵌段-聚砜-嵌段-聚乙二醇（PEG-b-PSf-b-PEG），以实现亲水性聚合物链的迁移性。在不涉及任何其他聚合物或添加剂的情况下，通过非溶剂致相分离（NIPS）法制备了 PEG-b-PSf-b-PEG 三嵌段共聚物 UF 膜。通过 PEG-b-PSf-b-PEG 三嵌段共聚物的自组装，结合在 90°C 下在水中进行 16 小时的热和溶剂退火处理，对 UF 膜的表面性质和过滤性能进行了调整。退火后的 PEG-b-PSf-b-PEG 三嵌段共聚物膜由于增加了平均孔径、提高了孔隙率以及降低了皮层厚度，显著提高了水通量。更重要的是，PEG-b-PSf-b-PEG 三嵌段共聚物膜表面在退火后从疏水性变为亲水性，表面 PEG 富集，从而表现出改善的蛋白质抗污染性能。我们的研究通过热和溶剂退火处理对两亲嵌段共聚物的自组装，为调整膜结构和表面性质开辟了一条新途径。
