Gas permeation through rubbery polymer nano-corrugated membranes.

ABSTRACT: The purpose of this investigation is to fabricate PDMS membranes with reliable surface roughness in order to reduce the surface resistances and to study its impact on the permeation rate. The permeance of CO₂ through PDMS membranes with rough surfaces at nanoscale is studied and compared with the one of membranes with flat surfaces. At very low thickness, rough membranes have a permeance greater than that of membranes with flat surfaces. The enhancement occurs in a regime where the gas transport is sorption desorption surface rate limited, and cannot be explained by the increase in surface area due to the corrugation. The analysis, introducing a phenomenological model in analogy with electrical flow, indicates that nano-corrugation reduces the surface resistance. To test the mod

SUBMITTER: Firpo G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5910414 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature