High-Affinity Detection and Capture of Heavy Metal Contaminants using Block Polymer Composite Membranes.

ABSTRACT: Adsorptive membranes offer one possible solution to the challenge of removing and recovering heavy metal ion contaminants and resources from water supplies. However, current membrane-based sorbents suffer from low binding affinities, leading to issues when contaminants are present at trace concentrations or when the source waters have a high concentration of background electrolytes that compete for open binding sites. Here, these challenges are addressed in the design of a highly permeable (i.e., permeability of ∼2.8 × 10⁴ L m^-2 h^-1 bar^-1) sorbent platform based on polysulfone and polystyrene-b-poly(acrylic acid) composite membranes. The membranes possess a fully interconnected network of poly(acrylic acid)-lined pores, which enables the s

SUBMITTER: Zhang Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6311697 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature