Study Of The Gelation Kinetics During Molecularly Imprinted Membrane Formation

Molecularly imprinted membranes have been researched for many years, however, little attention has been focused on the gelation kinetics during these membranes' formation. In this paper, three kinds of molecularly imprinted membranes were prepared through the phase inversion method by adding kaempferol as template molecule and imprinted polymer sphere and blank, respectively, the gelation kinetic processes were investigated in detail. It was found that the average gelation velocities of the skin layer ((v) over bar (1)) > the average gelation velocities of the transition layer ((v) over bar (2)) > the average gelation velocities of the support layer ((v) over bar (3) ) for the blank membrane, kaempferol molecularly imprinted membranes and polymer sphere molecularly imprinted membranes. The average gelation velocity of the molecularly imprinted membranes was faster than that of the blank membrane during the whole membrane formation process. Furthermore, the casting solution (formulation and viscosity), the gelation velocity and the membrane performances (water flux and rejection) were relative according to the experimental data analysis. All membranes prepared in this study exhibited asymmetric finger- like structures. In addition, three kinds of membranes were respectively tested their adsorption properties.