Charge Separating Microfiltration Membrane with pH-Dependent Selectivity

Membrane filters are designed for selective separation of components from a mixture. While separation by size might be the most common approach, other characteristics like charge can also be used for separation as presented in this study. Here, a polyether sulfone membrane was modified to create a zwitterionic surface. Depending on the pH value of the surrounding solution the membrane surface will be either negatively or positively charged. Thus, the charged state can be easily adjusted even by small changes of the pH value of the solution. Charged polystyrene beads were used as model reagent to investigate the pH dependent selectivity of the membrane. It was found that electrostatic forces are dominating the interactions between polystyrene beads and membrane surface during the filtration. This enables a complete control of the membrane’s selectivity according to the electrostatic interactions. Furthermore, differently charged beads marked with fluorescent dyes were used to investigate the selectivity of mixtures of charged components. These different components were successfully separated according to their charged state proving the selectivity of the invented membrane.