Effeot of Vapor- and Liquid-Phase Radiation Grafting on Water Permeability of Porous Hollow-Fiber Membrane

Abstract

Effect of the radiation-induced graft polymerization of monomers in vapor and liquid phases. to the hollow-fiber. membrane microfilter, made of porous high density polyethylene, upon the permeability of water has been studied. Determination of the flux of hollow-fiber membranes prepared by the graft polymerization of acrylonitrile, vinyl acetate, styrene, or acrylic acid revealed that the membranes prepared by vapor-phase grafting had a higher flux than those prepared by liquid-phase grafting. The measurement of pore volume and dimensional change revealed that hollow-fiber membrane grafted in vapor phase swells to larger extent. Cyano group of acrylonitrile and acetoxyl group of vinyl. acetate, , grafted to hollow-fiber membrane were converted to amide oxime and alcoholic hydroxyl group, respectively by the chemical modification. The flux of these functionalized membranes were determined and it is found that the functionalized membranes derived from vapor-phase gr afted membrane had higher water permeability than those derived from liquid-phase grafted ones.