Fabrication of Nanoporous Alumina Ultrafiltration Membrane with Tunable Pore Size Using Block Copolymer Templates
[2];
- Institute for Molecular Engineering, The University of Chicago, 5801 South Ellis Avenue Chicago IL 60637 USA
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000 Israel
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Yildiz Technical University, 34210 Esenler Istanbul Turkey
- Institute for Molecular Engineering, Material Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 S. Cass Avenue Argonne IL 60439 USA
- MOE Key Laboratory of Macromolecular Synthesis and Functionalization, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027 China
- Institute for Molecular Engineering, The University of Chicago, 5801 South Ellis Avenue Chicago IL 60637 USA; Institute for Molecular Engineering, Material Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 S. Cass Avenue Argonne IL 60439 USA
Control over nanopore size and 3D structure is necessary to advance membrane performance in ubiquitous separation devices. Here, inorganic nanoporous membranes are fabricated by combining the assembly of cylinder-forming poly(styrene-block-methyl methacrylate) (PS-b-PMMA) block copolymer and sequential infiltration synthesis (SIS). A key advance relates to the use of PMMA majority block copolymer films and the optimization of thermal annealing temperature and substrate chemistry to achieve throughfilm vertical PS cylinders. The resulting morphology allows for direct fabrication of nanoporous AlOx by selective growth of Al2O3 in the PMMA matrix during the SIS process, followed by polymer removal using oxygen plasma. Control over the pore diameter is achieved by varying the number of Al2O3 growth cycles, leading to pore size reduction from 21 to 16 nm. 3D characterization, using scanning transmission electron microscopy tomography, reveals that the AlOx channels are continuous through the film and have a gradual increase in pore size with depth. Finally, the ultrafiltration performance of the fabricated AlOx membrane for protein separation as a function of protein size and charge is demonstrated.
- Research Organization:
- Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science - Office of Basic Energy Sciences - Materials Sciences and Engineering Division
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC02-06CH11357
- OSTI ID:
- 1476509
- Journal Information:
- Advanced Functional Materials, Vol. 27, Issue 34; ISSN 1616-301X
- Publisher:
- Wiley
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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