Ultrafiltration membranes based on hybrids of an amphiphilic graft copolymer and titanium isopropoxide

Graft copolymer poly(vinyl chloride)‐ g ‐poly(oxyethylene methacrylate) (PVC‐ g ‐POEM) is combined with titanium isopropoxide (TTIP) to form hybrids that undergo phase separation in a water bath. The water permeance of the PVC‐ g ‐POEM membrane increases by hybridization with TTIP owing to an increase in the surface pore size and porosity. Upon heating to 80 °C, the water permeances of PVC‐ g ‐POEM and PVC‐ g ‐POEM/TTIP decrease owing to the increased thickness of the top layer. However, the bovine serum albumin (BSA) rejection of PVC‐ g ‐POEM increases, while that of PVC‐ g ‐POEM/TTIP decreases. This is attributed to accelerated dissolution of TTIP at 80 °C, resulting in a large number of surface pores. The antifouling performance is significantly improved by TTIP addition and heating owing to increased hydrophilicity, as confirmed by contact angle, O/C atomic ratio, and water content measurements. The PVC‐ g ‐POEM/TTIP membrane prepared at 25 °C shows the best performance [338 L m −2  h −1  bar −1 (LMH) water permeance, 89.4% BSA rejection, and 91.9% flux ratio recovery]. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2018 , 135 , 45932.