Hydrophobic and olephobic membrane usage and production processes [Nekaj mo@nih postopkov izdelave hidrofobnih in oleofobnih polimernih membram ter njihova uporaba]

作者：Drev D^*; Panjan J

来源：Materiali in Tehnologije, 2010, 44(2): 51-57.

• Filtration
• Hydrophobic
• Membrane
• Oleofobic

Hydrophobic and oleophobic membrane properties are very desirable for certain filtration process, giving them an advantage over other materials. A polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) membrane production process is presented, revealing a minimum membrane pore size of approximately 0.01μm. It follows that such membranes are not suitable for very fine filtration uses (ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis). In addition to PTFE, polysiloxanes are also marked by enhanced hydrophobic and oleophobic properties. However, polysiloxane membranes suffer from severe production process limitations as their production has thus far not been possible via classical phase inversion processes. Thus, several oleophobic and hydrophobic coatings based on mechanic foams and emulsions have been introduced as a crude replacement for expensive PTFE membranes. These require the introduction of a suitable hydrophobic or oleophobic material such as fluorocarbon into the polymer matrix. However, the degree of the resulting membrane opennes and pore size are not comparable to those of PTFE membranes. In this paper, I present a new production process for asymetric polysiloxane membranes that provides the basis of a solution to this problem. This process could allow the creation of very fine asymetric polysiloxane membranes that would have a large comparative advantage to polymers existing today.