Diffusivity and Solubility of Organic Solutes in Supported Liquid Crystal Membranes

Temperature-Dependent Gas Transport Behavior in Cross-Linked Liquid Crystalline Polyacrylate Membranes

Stable, cross-linked, liquid crystalline polymer (LCP) films for membrane separation applications have been fabricated from the mesogenic monomer 11-(4-cyanobiphenyl-4′-yloxy) undecyl methacrylate (CNBPh), non-mesogenic monomer 2-ethylhexyl acrylate (2-EHA), and cross-linker ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA) using an in-situ free radical polymerization technique with UV initiation. The phase behavior of the LCP membranes was characterized using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and X-ray scattering, and indicated the formation of a nematic liquid crystalline (LC) phase above the glass transition temperature. The single gas transport behavior of CO₂, CH₄, propane, and propylene in the cross-linked LCP membranes was investigated for a range of temperatures in the LC mesophase and the isotropic phase. Solubility of the gases was dependent not only on the condensability in the LC mesophase, but also on favorable molecular interactions of penetrant gas molecules exhibiting a charge separation, such as CO₂ and propylene, with the ordered polar mesogenic side chains of the LCP. Selectivities for various gas pairs generally decreased with increasing temperature and were discontinuous across the nematic–sotropic transition. Sorption behavior of CO₂ and propylene exhibited a significant change due to a decrease in favorable intermolecular interactions in the disordered isotropic phase. Higher cross-link densities in the membrane generally led to decreased selectivity at low temperatures when the main chain motion was limited by the lack of mesogen mobility in the ordered nematic phase. However, at higher temperatures, increasing the cross-link density increased selectivity as the cross-links acted to limit chain mobility. Mixed gas permeation measurements for propylene and propane showed close agreement with the results of the single gas permeation experiments.

Enantioselective separations using chiral supported liquid crystalline membranes

Porous and nonporous supported liquid crystalline membranes were produced by impregnating porous cellulose nitrate supports with cholesteric liquid crystal (LC) materials consisting of 4-cyano-4'-pentylbiphenyl (5CB) mixed with a cholesterol-based dopant (cholesteryl oleyl carbonate [COC], cholesteryl nonanoate [CN], or cholesteryl chloride [CC]). The membranes exhibit selectivity for R-phenylglycine and R-1-phenylethanol because of increased interactions between the S enantiomers and the left-handed cholesteric phase. The selectivity of both phenylglycine and 1-phenylethanol in 5CB/CN membranes decreases with effective pore diameter while the permeabilities increase, as expected. Phenylglycine, which is insoluble in the LC phase, exhibits no transport in the nonporous (completely filled) membranes; however, 1-phenylethanol, which is soluble in the LC phase, exhibits transport but negligible enantioselectivity. The enantioselectivity for 1-phenylethanol was higher (1.20 in 5CB/COC and 5CB/CN membranes) and the permeability was lower in the cholesteric phase than in the isotropic phase. Enantioselectivity was also higher in the 5CB/COC cholesteric phase than in the nematic phase of undoped 5CB (1.03). Enantioselectivity in the cholesteric phase of 5CB doped with CC (1.1), a dopant lacking hydrogen bonding groups, was lower than in the 5CB/COC phases. Finally, enantioselectivity increases with the dopant concentration up to a plateau value at approximately 17 mol%.

Spontaneous formation of water droplets at oil-solid interfaces

We report observations of spontaneous formation of micrometer-sized water droplets within micrometer-thick films of a range of different oils (isotropic and nematic 4-cyano-4'-pentylbiphenyl (5CB) and silicone, olive and corn oil) that are supported on glass substrates treated with octadecyltrichlorosilane (OTS) and immersed under water. Confocal imaging was used to determine that the water droplets nucleate and grow at the interface between the oils and OTS-treated glass with a contact angle of approximately 130 degrees. A simple thermodynamic model based on macroscopic interfacial energetic arguments consistent with the contact angle of 130 degrees, however, fails to account for the spontaneous formation of the water droplets. zeta-potential measurements performed with OTS-treated glass (-59.0 +/- 16.4 mV) and hydrophobic monolayers formed on gold films (2.0 +/- 0.7 mV), when combined with the observed absence of droplet formation under films of oil supported on the latter surfaces, suggest that the charge of the oil-solid interface promotes partitioning of water to the interfacial region. The hydrophobic nature of the OTS-treated glass promotes dewetting of water accumulated in the interfacial region into droplets (a thin film of water is seen to form on bare glass). The inhibitory effect on droplet formation of both salt (NaCl) and sucrose (0.1-500 mM) added to the aqueous phase was similar, indicating that both solutes lower the chemical potential of the bulk water (osmotic effect) sufficiently to prevent partitioning of the water to the interface between the oil and supporting substrates. These results suggest that charged, hydrophobic surfaces can provide routes to spontaneous formation of surface-supported, water-in-oil emulsions.