Composition and properties of porous blend membranes containing tertiary amine based amphiphilic copolymers with different sequence structures.

Four tertiary amine based amphiphilic copolymers with similar composition but different sequence structures in terms of diblock (Poly(dimethylamino-2-ethyl methacrylate-b-methyl methacrylate) (P(MMA-b-DMAEMA))), triblock (P(DMAEMA-b-MMA-b-DMAEMA)), four-armed diblock (P(MMA-b-DMAEMA)4) and random (P(MMA-r-DMAEMA)) were synthesized and used for fabricating functional porous membranes by blending method. The retention ratios and surface enrichment ratios of the copolymers in blend membranes were determined by hydrogen nuclear magnetic resonance ((1)H-NMR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The composition of the formed membranes was investigated and the durability was experimentally tested. The hydrophilicity of the membranes was evaluated by water contact angle measurement. The performance of membranes under different conditions including water fluxes at different pH and various ionic strength, the adsorption capabilities for Cr(VI) and negatively charged dye sunset yellow at different pH was studied. The results show that tertiary amine based amphiphilic copolymers with block and multi-armed sequence structures enable the blend membranes with higher copolymer retention ratios, more surface tertiary amine groups contents and better composition stability as well as more sensitive to the variation of pH, ionic strength, higher equilibrium anions, and negatively charged dyes uptakes.