Conférences : Antoine VENAULT et Yung CHANG, Department of Chemical Engineering and R&D Center for Membrane Technology, Taiwan – 7/9/2016

Some Designs of Low-Biofouling Membranes

Abstract:

This presentation is oriented toward the essential design strategies to prepare low-biofouling membranes for medical or environmental applications: grafting from, grafting onto and in-situ modification.
In a first part, we present zwitterionic and mixed-charge polymeric membranes formed by grafting from, using plasma-surface modification. This process is fairly well-controlled and leads to ideal surface-grafting of the antifouling brushes, then promoting surface hydration and preventing both plasma protein resistance and blood cells adhesion. Modified-membranes are applied as wound dressings, and wound-healing is shown to occur faster than with commercial dressing.
Secondly, we discuss some results obtained using thermal evaporation self-assembling coating, and try to shed light on some essential physico-chemical design parameters (coating density, chemistry of the surface-modifying agent) enabling to optimize fouling resistance without compromising the membrane bulk properties.
Finally, we move onto results obtained with in-situ modification methods, either the vapor-induced phase separation (VIPS) process or the liquid-induced phase separation (LIPS) one. Before stressing on the lowfouling properties and their potential application as ideal material for Microalgae harvesting, water treatment or blood-contacting devices, we discuss thoroughly the important effect of the modifying amphiphilic agent (e.g.: PS-b-PEGMA, PEO-b-PPO-b-PEO, PEGMA-b-PS-b-PEGMA) on membrane formation mechanisms.

Keywords. Low-biofouling membranes; grafting from; grafting onto; in-situ modification.

About the speaker
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Antoine Venault is affiliated to the Department of Chemical Engineering and to the R&D Center for Membrane Technology of Chung Yuan Christian University, Chung-Li, Taiwan. He completed his PhD in 2010 at the University of Montpellier, France, under the direction of Prof. Catherine Faur, and was a postdoctoral fellow at the RDCMT under the direction of Prof. Da-Ming Wang and Prof. Yung Chang. He started to work as an Assistant Professor in August 2011 and then as an Associate Professor three years later. His major research interest is the design of non-fouling polymeric membranes by in-situ modification (LIPS or VIPS process) or self-assembling surface modification for water treatment, blood-contacting devices or wound dressings. He is also interested in the gravity-driven breaking of oil-in-water and water-in-oil emulsions using membranes with finely tuned structures.