New Express Method of Non-Destructive Controlling of the Porous Structure of Asymmetric Membranes

An important practical and fundamental problem in the production of porous polymer membranes is the study of the porous structure and the detection of "defects" or large pores in the area of ​​the membrane. Known porosimetry methods cannot solve this problem. This work proposes a new non-destructive express method for studying the porous structure of asymmetric polymer membranes in high-intensity electric fields. This method can be successfully implemented on both flat sheet and hollow fiber membranes with a known porous structure. On the example of hollow fiber membranes made of polyacrylonitrile and polysulfone an assessment of the chemical structure effect of the membrane material on the high-voltage discharge currents in a highly inhomogeneous electric field through hollow fiber membranes with a given pore size was made. Under normal conditions and an average intensity of an inhomogeneous electric field E = 5 kV/cm, the results obtained allow us to conclude about a certain practical potential of the developed express method.