SusChem: Fabricate Membranes with Glassy Self Assembly Templating

University Of Cincinnati Main Campus, Cincinnati OH

Investigators

Abstract

Proposal Number: 1604061; PI: Ho, Chia-Chi Title: SUSCHEM: A new method for fabricating membranes based on Glassy Self-Assembly Templating and educational training Ultrafiltration and nanofiltration membranes have many applications in the bioprocessing, food processing, biotech, and pharmaceutical industries. These membranes are traditionally manufactured by air casting, immersion, or melt casting of polymer solutions. In almost all cases however, the pores as defined by the percolated nodules of polymer, are very polydisperse, geometrically ill-defined, and the porosity is very low. As a result, most current ultrafiltration membranes have relatively broad molecular-weight cut-offs and sub-optimal hydraulic permeability. The project will research an improved membrane synthesis method that can independently control the pore size distribution to make it more uniform and also to control the surface of the membrane to make it more tolerable to repel foulants. The methods are more environmentally benign than current synthesis methods and are potentially scalable. The PI will leverage existing University of Cincinnati programs to encourage undergraduate researchers especially women into her laboratory. The PI will also impact underrepresented pre-college students by working with area secondary education teachers to improve interest in STEM topics. This project will research a new approach to fabricate membranes with glassy self-assembly templating (GSAT). One goal of this research is to investigate if water in the traditional self-assembled surfactant templates can be replaced with glassy sugar surfactants leading to higher viscosity microemulsions. The polymerization of these template emulsions can potentially lead to nanostructured materials with finely tunable, uniform nanometer-size pores. After polymerization, the sugars and surfactants can be readily rinsed off with water and recycled. The synthesis method is potentially applicable to a wide range of polymer monomers giving an independent means to impact membrane surface chemistry towards foulants and pore size distribution. The transformative nature of the research lies in its novel method of synthesizing ultrafiltration membranes that have a narrow pore size distribution and tunable surface chemistry to tolerate foulants. The project will offer interdisciplinary training for all the participants.