Application of hydrophobic selective stimuli-responsive polymer membranes in organic pollutant treatment in aqueous phase

Both hydrophobic and hydrophilic pollutions have damage on our environment, and it is necessary to remove them. However, the treatments for different water pollutions can be specific due to the hydrophobicity of various molecules. Therefore, it is important to separate pollutants with different hydrophobicity. In this work, we developed a diffusion separation method based on hydrophobicity selectivity polymer membranes, whose selectivity between hydrophilic and hydrophobic pollutants can be up to more than 100. By doping pH-responsive monomer into hydrophobic polymer membrane, the permeability of membrane can be tuned by surrounding pH, and the selectivity is not decreasing. With the results of characteristics on contact angle, scanning electron microscope, and mechanical properties, we prove the stimuli-responsive polymer membrane at different states have similar properties with the nonresponsive amorphous polymer membranes with high separation selectivity.