Well-defined methacrylate based amphiphilic block copolymers (BCs) used as additives to fabricate poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) UF membranes, where the amphiphilic BC additives hydrophilically altered PVDF with PPEGMA block segment by strong interaction with the other PMMA block segment, which reduced water resistance to the PVDF polymer solution during phase separation. FT-IR and XPS studies showed carbonyl groups of BCs in the PVDF membranes. Obtained membranes showed porous surface layer and finger-like pore structures on the sublayers, of which sizes were increased with the increase of BC contents. Obtained membranes showed MWCO with 100K PEO and the best water flux was achieved in the PVDF membrane with BC/LiCl additive and improved the anti-fouling property for BSA protein.

Polysilsesquioxanes are essentially hybrid materials consisting of inorganic framework and organic functional groups. A proof of concept study for a new type of gas separation membrane was considered based on the ladder-structured poly(phenyl-co-glycidoxypropyl) silsesquioxanes with phenyl:glycidoxypropyl copolymer ratio of 6:4 (LPG64), which were synthesized by a base-catalyzed sol-gel reaction. Also, by selectively introducing polyethylene oxide (PEO) groups covalently bound to the LPSQ, we effectively suppressed the PEO crystallization, allowing for excellent CO2/H2 and CO2/N2 separation under single as well as mixed gas conditions. Engineering molecular structures of LPSQs will be discussed in detail to investigate the fundamentals of gas transport in LPSQ-based membranes as well as their extended application.