RENSSELAER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE (20250091017). TUNABLE HYDROPHILIC CROSSLINKED POLYMER MEMBRANES FOR SEPARATION APPLICATIONS
TUNABLE HYDROPHILIC CROSSLINKED POLYMER MEMBRANES FOR SEPARATION APPLICATIONS
Organization Name
RENSSELAER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE
Inventor(s)
Georges Belfort of North Falmouth MA US
James Kilduff of Saratoga Springs NY US
TUNABLE HYDROPHILIC CROSSLINKED POLYMER MEMBRANES FOR SEPARATION APPLICATIONS
This abstract first appeared for US patent application 20250091017 titled 'TUNABLE HYDROPHILIC CROSSLINKED POLYMER MEMBRANES FOR SEPARATION APPLICATIONS
Original Abstract Submitted
a membrane for separating organic solvents such as methanol and toluene is provided. a plurality methacrylate polymer brushes, e.g., composed of hydroxyethyl methacrylate (hema) monomers or aminoethyl methacrylate (aema) monomers, are grafted from a crosslinked polyimide support using single electron transfer-living radical polymerization (set-lrp). the polymer brushes themselves are also crosslinked by ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (egdma), triethylene glycol dimethacryalte (tegdma) trimesic acid, and/or itaconic acid. these hydrophilic polymeric brush membranes demonstrate pore stiffening and yet also opening, obtaining high selectivity at reasonable permeability and reduced energy requirements for commercially relevant separations, e.g., methanol/toluene. the addition of the crosslinker prevents loss of selectivity as a result of imparting increased rigidity, enabling the membranes to be operated at higher operating pressures for increased throughput. these membranes would be beneficial for use in pharmaceutical, chemical, petroleum, food, and biotechnology industries, e.g., in the manufacture of polymethacrylic acid, the manufacture of paraxylene, etc.