A New Kind of Membrane for Separation Processes:  The       Hydrophobic-Hydrophilic Membranes (Expedited Award for      Novel Research)
{'Code': '07020000', 'Directorate': {'Abbreviation': 'ENG', 'LongName': 'Directorate For Engineering'}, 'Division': {'Abbreviation': 'CBET', 'LongName': 'Div Of Chem, Bioeng, Env, & Transp Sys'}}
{'SignBlockName': 'Charles Alexander Garris, Jr.', 'PO_EMAI': None, 'PO_PHON': None}
The proposed process would allow design of a membrane for a specific            liquid separation.  Monomers of two immiscible polymers are dispersed           in one another with a surfactant (probably a block copolymer).  A very          high dispersed-phase mole fraction is used, so that a gel-like                  consistence is obtained.  The gel is then pressed between glass plates          and polymerized.  The result is a thin membrane with separate, ordered          domains, some hydrophobic and some hydrophilic.  The monomers are also          selected so that the component to be separated from the liquid mixture          is highly soluble in the polymer phase which was dispersed in the               membrane.  The polymer in which the target compound is not soluble              gives the liquid membrane structural integrity, while the polymer               produced from the dispersed phase monomer has a very high permeability          for that compound.  The membrane is kept from disintegrating, as it             becomes saturated with the solute to be removed from the solution, by           the polymer making up the continuous phase of the original dispersion.                                                                                                                                                                          An example of a potential application is ground water cleanup, such as          the removal of benzene from a contaminated aquifer.  One would use              styrene as the dispersed phase to produce polystyrene, which is highly          soluble in benzene.  The continuous phase monomer would be very                 hydrophilic, such as n-vinyl pyrrolidone.  The                                  poly-n-vinyl-pyrrolidone would prevent the polystyrene domains                  from losing structural integrity as they became saturated with                  benzene, but the flux of benzene through the polystyrene domains                should be very high.  Many other potentially important                          separations can be imagined, such as the separation of ethanol                  from water.  If this process is successful, it will constitute a                major advance in an important emerging engineering technology.
{'FirstName': 'Eli', 'LastName': 'Ruckenstein', 'PI_MID_INIT': None, 'PI_SUFX_NAME': None, 'PI_FULL_NAME': 'Eli Ruckenstein', 'EmailAddress': 'feaeliru@buffalo.edu', 'NSF_ID': '000170265', 'StartDate': '12/01/1988', 'EndDate': None, 'RoleCode': 'Principal Investigator'}
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{'Code': '1417', 'Text': 'Interfacial Engineering Progra'}
{'url': 'https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/download?DownloadFileName=1989&All=true', 'xml': '8900259.xml'}