A microfluidic approach for the synthesis and assembly of multi-scale porous membranes

Abstract

A microfluidic approach is used to synthesize porous membranes with various advanced features such as multiscale pores, heterogeneous chemistry and customizable geometries. In the synthesizing process, while photomasks define microscale regular pores, polymerization-induced phase-separation forms nanoscale irregular pores. Thus, this combination offers the ability to generate multiscale pores on a membrane in a single step. The resulting membranes exhibit heterogeneous chemical properties by co-flowing prepolymer solutions with different chemical components and have designed geometries defined by photomasks. Furthermore, complex layered structures with chemical and physical anisotropies in the cross-membrane direction can be fabricated through magnet assisted self-assembly by encapsulating magnetic particles into the membranes.