Fabrication of Dyes Adsorption Separation Membrane Via Post-Thermal Annealing Mediated Phase Inversion of Sulfonated Polyarylene Ethers Copolymers

Abstract

A sulfonated polyarylene ether random copolymer (abbreviated as Ao-S) has been synthesized and further converted into porous membranes via the classical non-solvent induced phase separation (NIPS) technique. Then, the structure, morphology, thermal properties was analyzed by several characterization equipment. More importantly, it is found that the post thermal annealing effectively enhances the organic solvent resistance of Ao-S porous membranes. The performance tests indicate that the Ao-S membranes are effective in separating the model dyes of rhodamine (Rhb) dissolved in isopropanol (IPA) solution and the heat treatment temperature of 240°C is the optimized one for improving the separation of dyes due to the combined effect of pore trapping and physical adsorption at the active sites of the polymer matrix. Basically, the current work opens new way to design and fabricate the organic solvent resistant separation membranes.