(213b) Functionalized and Responsive Membranes: An Overview

Membrane processes provide a highly flexible separation technique for water treatment and materials recovery. The special features for membrane processes that make them attractive are their compactness, ease of fabrication, operation, and modular design. The development of responsive, multifunctional materials and membranes for water applications requires a high level of control of both the characteristics of the base polymeric support layer, as well as, its corresponding pore configurations. Microfiltration membranes are primarily used for the removal of bacteria and particles, but on the other hand by appropriate pore functionalization with polymeric charge groups or integration of nanoparticles of these MF membranes (termed Functionalized Membranes) one can use these as high capacity metal capture membranes to catalysis and pH/temperature flux modulations with separation selectivity. The dependence of conformation properties of polyelectrolytes provides tunable separation and membrane flux control by pH and temperature-based stimuli responsive properties. Many current treatments for the reclamation of contaminated water sources are chemical-intensive, energy-intensive, and/or require post-treatment due to unwanted by-product formation. We demonstrate that through the integration of nanostructured materials within pore-functionalized synthetic membrane platforms (such as, PVDF membrane pores functionalized with poly-acrylic acid, and/or PNipam), we are able to conduct environmentally important reactions for toxic organic degradation and selective toxic material sorption from water without the addition of expensive or harmful chemicals. The presentation will include pH and temperature responsive properties of bench-scale to full-scale membranes, sorption/desorption, and catalytic nanoparticle creation in membrane pore domain for water and catalysis related applications. This research has been supported by NIH-NIEHS-SRP, NSF EPSCoR, and Chevron Corporation.