Membranes

Membranes, which can be defined as selective barriers between two phases, have a plethora of applications, including water purification and desalination, therapeutic drug development, and chemical sensing. Our research program utilizes block copolymer self-assembly combined with non-solvent induced phase separation to produce membranes with well-ordered, densely packed, uniform pores in the top surface. Using this technique and the triblock terpolyer poly(isoprene-b-styrene-b-4-vinyl pyridine), which is synthesized in our labs via anionic polymerization, we have fabricated scalable membranes with high fluxes and sharp molecular weight cut-offs.

 

References

[1] William A. Phillip., Rachel Mika Dorin, Joerg G. Werner, Eric M.V. Hoek, Ulrich B. Wiesner, and Menachem Elimelech, "Tuning Structure and Properties of Graded Triblock Terpolymer-Based Mesoporous and Hybrid Films", Nano Lett. 11, 2892-2900 (2011).