title: Self-Healing Hydrogel Pore-Filled Water Filtration Membranes.
abstract: Damages to water filtration membranes during installation and operation are known to cause detrimental loss of the product water quality. Membranes that have the ability to self-heal would recover their original rejection levels autonomously, bypassing the need for costly integrity monitoring and membrane replacement practices. Herein, we fabricated hydrogel pore-filled membranes via in situ graft polymerization of 2-acrylamido-2-methyl-1-propanesulfonic acid (AMPS) onto microporous poly(ether sulfone) (PES) substrates and successfully demonstrated their self-healing ability. Covalent attachment of the hydrogel to the substrate was essential for stable membrane performance. The membranes autonomously restore their particle rejection up to 99% from rejection levels as low as 30% after being physically damaged. We attribute the observed self-healing property to swelling of the pore-filling hydrogel into the damage site, strong hydrogen bonding, and molecular interdiffusion. The results of this study show that hydrogel pore-filled membranes are a promising new class of materials for fabricating self-healing membranes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Yale University , New Haven, Connecticut 06511, United States.
authors.forename: Bezawit A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Getachew
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Yale University , New Haven, Connecticut 06511, United States.
authors.forename: Sang-Ryoung
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Yale University , New Haven, Connecticut 06511, United States.
authors.forename: Jae-Hong
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-2224-3516
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Kim
mesh_terms: D005374:Filtration; D020136:Hydrogel, Polyethylene Glycol Dimethacrylate / Q000737:chemistry*; D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry; D014867:Water
chemical_list: D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D011108:Polymers; D014867:Water; D020136:Hydrogel, Polyethylene Glycol Dimethacrylate