Thermoresponsive antifouling ultrafiltration membranes from mesophase templating

Nanostructured polymers synthesized by lyotropic liquid crystal (LLC) templates with normal hexagonal (H1) structure exhibit a 3D-continuous transport path, which makes them ideal for membrane separation application. Incorporating additional functionality, especially stimuli-responsiveness, in such an ordered structure provides even more application opportunities. In this work, we present the first successful synthesis of H1-structured thermoresponsive ultrafiltration (UF) membranes via LLC templating. The membrane contains thermoresponsive Pluronic P84 diacrylate (P84DA) which not only acts as the monomer and structure-directing amphiphile, but also enables the pore size change with temperature. Experimental studies reveal that the swelling capacity of H1templated polymer as well as permeability and selectivity of the obtained membrane can be altered by changing the temperature. Increasing the temperature from 25 to 45 degrees C increases the normalized flux from 28 to 68 L m- 2 h-1 & mu;m and molecular weight cut-off (MWCO) from 2200 to 3900 Da. Furthermore, the membrane shows an outstanding fouling resistance against different solutes.