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Self‐Assembled Isoporous Block Copolymer Membranes with Tuned Pore Sizes
Author(s) -
Yu Haizhou,
Qiu Xiaoyan,
Nunes Suzana P.,
Peinemann KlausViktor
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
angewandte chemie
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1521-3757
pISSN - 0044-8249
DOI - 10.1002/ange.201404491
Subject(s) - copolymer , membrane , materials science , chemical engineering , filtration (mathematics) , nanotechnology , self assembly , phase (matter) , deposition (geology) , nanoparticle , chemistry , polymer , organic chemistry , composite material , engineering , biology , paleontology , biochemistry , statistics , mathematics , sediment
Abstract The combination of nonsolvent‐induced phase separation and the self‐assembly of block copolymers can lead to asymmetric membranes with a thin highly ordered isoporous skin layer. The effective pore size of such membranes is usually larger than 15 nm. We reduced the pore size of these membranes by electroless gold deposition. We demonstrate that the pore sizes can be controlled precisely between 3 and 20 nm leading to a tunable sharp size discrimination in filtration processes. Besides fractionation of nanoparticles and biomaterials, controlled drug delivery is an attractive potential application.