Free-standing thermo-responsive nanoporous membranes from high molecular weight PS-PNIPAM block copolymers synthesized via RAFT polymerization

Merve Cetintas, Joris De Grooth, Anton H. Hofman, Hanne M. Van der Kooij, Katja Loos, Wiebe M. De Vos, Marleen Kamperman*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

38 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The incorporation of stimuli-responsive pores in nanoporous membranes is a promising approach to facilitate the cleaning process of the membranes. Here we present fully reversible thermo-responsive nanoporous membranes fabricated by self-assembly and non-solvent induced phase separation (SNIPS) of polystyrene-poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PS-PNIPAM) block copolymers. A variety of PS-PNIPAM block copolymers were synthesized by reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization and the reaction conditions were optimized. The target copolymers featured: (1) a thermo-responsive PNIPAM block, (2) a majority PS fraction, and (3) a well-defined high molecular weight, which are requirements for successful fabrication of free-standing responsive membranes using SNIPS. The resulting membranes exhibited a worm-like cylindrical morphology with interconnected nanopores. The thermo-responsive character of the membranes was studied by measuring the permeability of the membranes as a function of temperature. The permeability was found to increase by almost 400% upon going from room temperature to 50 °C and this thermo-responsive character was fully reversible.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2235-2243
JournalPolymer Chemistry
Volume8
Issue number14
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2017

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