Achievement

Polymeric membranes for water treatment offer an affordable, highly selective barrier for removing specific solutes (salts, metals, sugars, proteins, viruses, bacteria, etc.) from water. Current thermoplastic polymer membranes lack the high efficiency & high selectivity found in natural membranes, such as exist in the human kidney. In collaboration with Prof. E. Hoek's research group in the Civil & Environmental Engineering Dept., Tom Farrell in Prof. R. Kaner's lab has developed materials & methods for producing high permeability polyaniline ultrafiltration membranes by nonsolvent-induced phase inversion. The membrane pore-structure & hydrophilicity can be controlled by the polymer chemistry, choice of solvent, & membrane casting conditions as was reported in the Journal of Materials Chemistry 2010, 20, 4621. Continuation of this work aims to optimize membrane structure & chemistry so that certain biological separations such as renal dialysis can be accomplished more efficiently.