Poly(methyl methacrylate) Membrane: Dynamic Measurement of Concentrations During Water-Induced Phase Separation

The properties of membranes produced by nonsolvent-induced phase separation (NIPS) depend on the rate of mass transfer of mobile components. This paper reports the use of Fourier transform infrared-attenuated total reflectance (FTIR-ATR) using principle component regression (PCR) analysis to study the compositional change of polymer solution immersed into the water prior to the phase demixing. To correlate the compositional change with the macroscopic structure, the observation on the dynamics of NIPS is made by a low magnification optical microscope equipped with a video camera. The morphology of the films was also examined by scanning electron microscope. Acetone and N, N-dimethylformamide were chosen as solvents to present different behavior of poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) solutions during the NIPS process. The ratio of solvent and nonsolvent exchange, flux ratio shows the mass transfer in the homogeneous polymer solution after immersion in a nonsolvent bath. The results show that the flux ratio ( ) is affected by solvents which probably affects the ultimate structures of the precipitated polymer.