Preparation of thermosensitive cellophane-graft-N-isopropylacrylamide copolymer membranes and permeation of solutes through the membranes

✍ Scribed by Takamasa Nonaka; Keisuke Hashimoto; Seiji Kurihara

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 243 KB
• Volume: 66
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0021-8995
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-4628(19971010)66:2<209::aid-app1>3.0.co;2-#

✦ Synopsis

Thermosensitive membranes with high mechanical strength were prepared by heterogeneous graft copolymerization of N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAAm) onto cellophane in a nitric acid solution using cerium ammonium nitrate as an initiator, and the permeation behavior of solutes such as lithium chloride and poly(ethylene glycol)s (PEGs) through the membranes at various temperatures was investigated. The degree of graft copolymerization of NIPAAm on cellophane depended on temperature, time, initiator concentration, and so on. The copolymer membranes having a high content of the NIPAAm moiety could be obtained at 25ЊC for 24 h. The permeation of Li / through the membranes was affected by temperature, i.e., the permeation rate of Li / increased with increasing temperature up to 32ЊC and then decreased rapidly above 35ЊC. The permeation rate of Li / through the copolymer membranes at 40ЊC decreased considerably, but that at 20ЊC decreased slightly with an increasing amount of the NIPAAm moiety in the membranes. The permeation rate of PEGs with a molecular weight more than 1000 through the cellophane-g-NIPPAm copolymer membranes was considerably suppressed and only the permeation rate of PEG300 increased with increasing temperature up to 35ЊC and then decreased at 40ЊC.