title: Template-particle stabilized bicontinuous emulsion yielding controlled assembly of hierarchical high-flux filtration membranes.
abstract: A novel solvent-evaporation-based process that exploits template-particle stabilized bicontinuous emulsions for the formation of previously unreached membrane morphologies is reported in this article. Porous membranes have a wide range of applications spanning from water filtration, pharmaceutical purification, and battery separators to scaffolds for tissue engineering. Different situations require different membrane morphologies including various pore sizes and pore gradients. However, most of the previously reported membrane preparation procedures are restricted to specific morphologies and morphology alterations require an extensive optimization process. The tertiary system presented in this article, which consists of a poly(ether sulfone)/dimethylacetamide (PES/DMAc) solution, glycerol, and ZnO-nanoparticles, allows simple and exact tuning of pore diameters ranging from sub-20 nm, up to 100 nm. At the same time, the pore size gradient is controlled from 0 up to 840%/μm yielding extreme asymmetry. In addition to structural analysis, water flux rates of over 5600 L m(-2) h(-1) are measured for membranes retaining 45 nm silica beads.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Chemical and Bioengineering, ETH Zürich Wolfgang-Pauli-Strasse 10 CH-8093 Zürich Switzerland.
authors.forename: Samuel C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Hess
authors.forename: A Xavier
authors.initials: AX
authors.lastname: Kohll
authors.forename: Renzo A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Raso
authors.forename: Christoph M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Schumacher
authors.forename: Robert N
authors.initials: RN
authors.lastname: Grass
authors.forename: Wendelin J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Stark
mesh_terms: D000081:Acetamides / Q000737:chemistry; D000327:Adsorption; D000465:Algorithms; D002853:Chromatography, Liquid; D004655:Emulsions; D005374:Filtration; D005990:Glycerol / Q000737:chemistry; D013058:Mass Spectrometry; D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D009584:Nitrogen / Q000737:chemistry; D010316:Particle Size; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry; D016062:Porosity; D012997:Solvents / Q000737:chemistry; D013450:Sulfones / Q000737:chemistry; D023822:Tissue Engineering / Q000379:methods*; D014783:Viscosity; D015034:Zinc Oxide / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D000081:Acetamides; D004655:Emulsions; D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D011108:Polymers; D012997:Solvents; D013450:Sulfones; C022840:polyether sulfone; C013959:dimethylacetamide; D009584:Nitrogen; D005990:Glycerol; D015034:Zinc Oxide
keywords: asymmetric structures; filtration; hierarchical membranes; phase separation; template-particles