Current status and future directions of self-assembled block copolymer membranes for molecular separations

One of the most efficient and promising separation alternatives to thermal methods such as distillation is the use of polymeric membranes that separate mixtures based on molecular size or chemical affinity. Self-assembled block copolymer membranes have gained considerable attention within the membrane field due to precise control over nanoscale structure, pore size, and chemical versatility. Despite the rapid progress and excitement, a significant hurdle in using block copolymer membranes for nanometer and sub-nanometer separations such as nanofiltration and reverse osmosis is the lower limit on domain size features. Strategies such as polymer post-functionalization, self-assembly of oligomers, liquid crystals, and random copolymers, or incorporation of artificial/natural channels within block copolymer materials are future directions with the potential to overcome current limitations with respect to separation size.

Selective Swelling and Functionalization of Integral Asymmetric Isoporous Block Copolymer Membranes

SNIPS stands for a membrane fabrication technique that combines the evaporation induced self-assembly of the block copolymers and the classical nonsolvent induced phase separation. It is a one-step readily scalable technique to fabricate integral asymmetric isoporous membranes. The prominent developments in the last decade have carved out a niche for SNIPS as a potential technique to fabricate next generation isoporous membranes. In the last decade, a rich polymer library and variety of membrane postmodification routes have been successfully implemented to fabricate SNIPS membranes having the desired pore functionality. Some of these membranes form soft nanochannels in hydrated state due to swelling of the pore wall, i.e., the pore forming block of the block copolymer. These membranes having soft nanochannels have demonstrated the potential to perform several challenging separation tasks in ultrafiltration and nanofiltration. This paper highlights the currently accessible pore functionality, the strategies to tune the swelling of the soft nanochannels, the potential applications, and future perspectives of these membranes.

Facilitated Structure Formation in Isoporous Block Copolymer Membranes upon Controlled Evaporation by Gas Flow

The conventional fabrication of isoporous membranes via the evaporation-induced self-assembly of block copolymers in combination with non-solvent induced phase separation (SNIPS) is achieved under certain environmental conditions. In this study, we report a modification in the conventional fabrication process of (isoporous) flat sheet membranes in which the self-assembly of block copolymers is achieved by providing controlled evaporation conditions using gas flow and the process is introduced as gSNIPS. This fabrication approach can not only trigger and control the microphase separation but also provides isoporous structure formation in a much broader range of solution concentrations and casting parameters, as compared to fabrication under ambient, uncontrolled conditions. We systematically investigated the structure formation of the fabrication of integral asymmetric isoporous membranes by gSNIPS. A quantitative correlation between the evaporation conditions (causing solvent evaporation and temperature drop) and the self-assembly of block copolymers beginning from the top layer up to a certain depth, orientation of pores in the top layer and the substructure morphology has been discussed empirically.

Chemically Tailored Multifunctional Asymmetric Isoporous Triblock Terpolymer Membranes for Selective Transport

Membrane-based separation of organic molecules with 1-2 nm lateral dimensions is a demanding but rather underdeveloped technology. The major challenge is to fabricate membranes having distinct nanochannels with desired functionality. Here, a bottom-up strategy to produce such a membrane using a tailor-made triblock terpolymer featuring miscible end blocks with two different functional groups is demonstrated. A scalable multifunctional integral asymmetric isoporous membrane is fabricated by the solvent evaporation-induced self-assembly of the block copolymer combined with nonsolvent-induced phase separation. The membrane nanopores are readily functionalized using positively and negatively charged moieties by two straightforward gas-solid reactions. The pores of the post-functionalized membranes act as target-specific functional soft nanochannels due to swelling of the polyelectrolyte blocks in a hydrated state. The membranes show unprecedented separation selectivity of small molecules based on size and/or charge which demonstrates the potential of the proposed strategy to prepare next-generation nanofiltration membranes.

Isoporous Membranes from Novel Polystyrene-b-poly(4-vinylpyridine)-b-poly(solketal methacrylate) (PS-b-P4VP-b-PSMA) Triblock Terpolymers and Their Post-Modification

In this paper, the formation of nanostructured triblock terpolymer polystyrene-b-poly(4-vinylpyridine)-b-poly(solketal methacrylate) (PS-b-P4VP-b-PSMA), polystyrene-b-poly(4-vinylpyridine)-b-poly(glyceryl methacrylate) (PS-b-P4VP-b-PGMA) membranes via block copolymer self-assembly followed by non-solvent-induced phase separation (SNIPS) is demonstrated. An increase in the hydrophilicity was observed after treatment of non-charged isoporous membranes from PS-b-P4VP-b-PSMA, through acidic hydrolysis of the hydrophobic poly(solketal methacrylate) PSMA block into a hydrophilic poly(glyceryl methacrylate) PGMA block, which contains two neighbored hydroxyl (-OH) groups per repeating unit. For the first time, PS-b-P4VP-b-PSMA triblock terpolymers with varying compositions were successfully synthesized by sequential living anionic polymerization. Composite membranes of PS-b-P4VP-b-PSMA and PS-b-P4VP-b-PGMA triblock terpolymers with ordered hexagonally packed cylindrical pores were developed. The morphology of the membranes was studied with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). PS-b-P4VP-b-PSMA triblock terpolymer membranes were further treated with acid (1 M HCl) to get polystyrene-b-poly(4-vinylpyridine)-b-poly(glyceryl methacrylate) (PS-b-P4VP-b-PGMA). Notably, the pristine porous membrane structure could be maintained even after acidic hydrolysis. It was found that membranes containing hydroxyl groups (PS-b-P4VP-b-PGMA) show a stable and higher water permeance than membranes without hydroxyl groups (PS-b-P4VP-b-PSMA), what is due to the increase in hydrophilicity. The membrane properties were analyzed further by contact angle, protein retention, and adsorption measurements.

Exploring the Self-Assembly Capabilities of ABA-Type SBS, SIS, and Their Analogous Hydrogenated Copolymers onto Different Nanostructures Using Atomic Force Microscopy

In this work, the self-assembled morphologies obtained for poly(styrene-b-butadiene-b-styrene) (SBS) and poly(styrene-b-isoprene-b-styrene) (SIS) ABA-type copolymers were investigated before and after hydrogenation of the polydiene block, which led to poly(styrene-b-ethylene)/poly(ethylene-b-styrene) (SEES) and poly(styrene-b-ethylene)/poly(propylene-b-styrene) (SEPS) copolymers, respectively. The evaluation of different morphologies was carried out using atomic force microscopy (AFM), analyzing the effect of various parameters such as the solvent and polymer concentrations employed for film casting (toluene, cyclohexane, or tetrahydrofurane with concentrations of 1 and 3 wt%), together with that of the annealing treatment (thermal annealing at room temperature, and 60, 80, and 100 °C). The effect of these parameters in combination with the chemical nature of the polydiene block led to different morphologies with different topographic aspects affecting the roughness (Ra) of the film.