Polyelectrolytes as Building Blocks for Next-Generation Membranes with Advanced Functionalities

Abstract

The global society is in a transition, where dealing with climate change and water scarcity are important challenges. More efficient separations of chemical species are essential to reduce energy consumption and to provide more reliable access to clean water. Here, membranes with advanced functionalities that go beyond standard separation properties can play a key role. This includes relevant functionalities, such as stimuli-responsiveness, fouling control, stability, specific selectivity, sustainability, and antimicrobial activity. Polyelectrolytes and their complexes are an especially promising system to provide advanced membrane functionalities. Here, we have reviewed recent work where advanced membrane properties stem directly from the material properties provided by polyelectrolytes. This work highlights the versatility of polyelectrolyte-based membrane modifications, where polyelectrolytes are not only applied as single layers, including brushes, but also as more complex polyelectrolyte multilayers on both porous membrane supports and dense membranes. Moreover, free-standing membranes can also be produced completely from aqueous polyelectrolyte solutions allowing much more sustainable approaches to membrane fabrication. The Review demonstrates the promise that polyelectrolytes and their complexes hold for next-generation membranes with advanced properties, while it also provides a clear outlook on the future of this promising field.

Fundamentals and Applications of Polymer Brushes in Air

“… 7 , 8 As such, they can be broadly applied, ranging from (bio)medical materials 9 to membrane technologies. 10 , 11 Moreover, polymers are responsive to small changes in their environment, such as temperature, pH, or solvent composition. 12 , 13 Consequently, the properties of polymer brushes alter in response to their environment as well, which has been utilized to control adhesion and friction, 14 , 15 channel flow, 16 , 17 drug release, 18 , 19 and more.…”

Poly(vinyl pyridine) and Its Quaternized Derivatives: Understanding Their Solvation and Solid State Properties

“…Due to these features, they are widely employed as viscosity and surface modifiers as well as selective adsorbers. Consequently, these materials are useful in various industrial applications, materials and formulations from water treatment [ 7 ], membranes [ 8 , 9 ], sensors [ 10 ] and cosmetics to biomedicine with specific uses in bacterial and viral infections [ 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 ].…”

Synthetic strategies to enhance the long-term stability of polymer brush coatings

“…chameleons. 20 Next to these bioinspired approaches, brushes can also be applied in smart adhesives, 21,22 energy devices, 23,24 bactericidal [25][26][27] and blood compatible 28,29 coatings, membranes, 30,31 nano-theranostics, 32 times the radius of gyration, the polymers do not interact and form mushrooms in good solvents. When these low-density polymers are in a poor solvent and/or strongly interacting with the substrate, pancakes instead of mushrooms are formed.…”