3D Printing of Functional Hydrogel Devices for Screenings of Membrane Permeability and Selectivity

A fundamental understanding of the effects of varying ligand chemistries on mass transport rates is considered key to designing membranes with solute-specific selectivity. While permeation cells are used as a robust method to characterize membrane performance, they are limited to assessing a single membrane chemistry or salt solution per test. As a result, the investigation of the effects of varying ligand chemistries on membrane performance can become a tedious process, involving the preparation of multiple samples and numerous, time-consuming permeation tests. In this study, a millifluidic flow-based permeation device was fabricated using digital light processing (DLP) 3D printing from a hydrogel active ester network that can be easily functionalized with ion-selective ligands. Without the need for bonding or assembly steps, ligands can be introduced and tested in the permeation device by simply injecting a small volume of a ligand solution. Various salt concentrations and molecular species can be cycled through a single device by switching the solution feeding into the salt reservoir, thereby reducing the number of samples needed for permeability and selectivity screenings. The groundwork is set by this research for formulation development and postprocessing methods to 3D-print functional millifluidic devices capable of assessing solute selectivity in membranes and polymer adsorbents for aqueous separations. Comparable salt permeability trends were observed with both 3D-printed devices and traditional assays. Devices were functionalized with an imidazole ligand to investigate salt permeability and selectivity of monovalent and divalent salts. Increasing permeability for monovalent salts (NaCl) relative to divalent salts (MgCl₂, CuCl₂) was shown in functionalized membranes, with higher monovalent/divalent selectivity observed at increasing imidazole grafting densities. The methods and findings described here are considered a step toward developing higher-throughput methods with 3D-printed devices for screening the effects of ligand chemistry on mass transport rates in membrane materials.

• Ponce, I
• Sujanani, R
• Moon, J
• Urueña, J
• Hawker, C
• Segalman, R

• Materials Department, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California 93106, United States

• Request a Brochure
• Request more Info
• Request a Quote