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The separation of oil from water and filtration of aqueous solutions and dispersions are critical issues in the processing of waste and contaminated water treatment. Membrane-based technology has been proven as an effective method for the separation of oil from water. In this research, novel vertical nanopores membrane, via oriented cylindrical block copolymer (BCP) films, suitable for oil/water filtration has been designed, fabricated and tested. We used a ∼100 nm thick model poly(styrene- block -methymethacrylate) (PS- b -PMMA) BCP as the active top nanofiltration layer, processed using a roll-to-roll (R2R) method of cold zone annealing (CZA) to obtain vertical orientation, followed by ultraviolet (UV) irradiation selective etch of PMMA cylinders to form vertically oriented nanopores as a novel feature compared to meandering nanopores in other reported BCP systems. The cylindrical nanochannels are hydrophilic, and have a uniform pore size (∼23 nm), a narrow pore size distribution and a high nanopore density (∼420 per sq. micron). The bottom supporting layer is a conventional microporous polyethersulfone (PES) membrane. The created asymmetric membrane is demonstrated to be effective for oil/water extraction with a modestly high throughput rate comparable to other RO/NF membranes. The molecular weight dependent filtration of a water soluble polymer, PEO, demonstrates the broader applications of such membranes.
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Nanorod position and orientation in vertical cylinder block copolymer films
The self-assembly of gold nanorods (AuNRs) of different sizes with a block copolymer (BCP) is studied. Polystyrene- block -poly(2-vinylpyridine) (PS- b -P2VP) films containing P2VP functionalized AuNRs are solvent annealed resulting in a BCP morphology of vertical P2VP cylinders in a PS matrix. At the surface of the PS- b -P2VP films long AuNRs are found in the bridging and vertical states. The bridging state is where the long axis of the AuNR is parallel to the film surface, the AuNR is embedded in the film, and each end of the AuNR is at the top of nearest neighbor P2VP cylinders. The vertical state is where the AuNR is localized within a vertical P2VP cylinder, the AuNR long axis is perpendicular to the film surface and the upper tip of the AuNR is at the film surface. Short AuNRs were found in the bridging and vertical states as well as in a state not observed for the long AuNRs, the centered state. The centered state is where an AuNR has its long axis parallel to the film surface, is embedded in the film, and is centered over a vertical P2VP cylinder. Hybrid particle-field theory (HPFT) simulations modeling the experimental system predict that for the long AuNRs only the bridging state should be observed while for the short AuNRs only the bridging and centered states should be observed. Possible explanations for why the vertical state is observed in experiments despite being thermodynamically unfavorable in simulations are discussed. HPFT simulations also show that when a nanorod is in the bridging state the two cylinders it bridges remain intact and extend from the nanorod to the substrate. Further, the minority block of the BCP is shown to wet the bottom of the bridging nanorod. The bridging state is very promising for the future development of self-assembled nanoscale devices.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1905912
- PAR ID:
- 10147358
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Soft Matter
- Volume:
- 16
- Issue:
- 12
- ISSN:
- 1744-683X
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 3005 to 3014
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1039/d0sm00043d
