Application of DMAEMA‐grafted expanded PTFE films to positively charged ultrafiltration membranes and their electrostatic sieve separation properties

A study was done of the ultrafiltration properties of expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE) films with two average pore sizes, 0.5 and 3.0 μm, grafted with 2‐(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate (DMAEMA)—grafted 0.5‐ePTFE and grafted 3.0‐ePTFE—using dextran (Dxt) and quaternized dextran (qDxt) in water and in buffer solutions with a pH in the range of 4–10. The water permeability was found to be proportional to the operating pressure below 2.0 kgf/cm2. Grafted 0.5‐ePTFE films apparently had a higher rejection than did the grafted 3.0‐ePTFE films, and the cutoff value for grafted 0.5‐ePTFE films decreased with an increase in the grafted amount. The apparent rejection of Dxt and qDxt increased with a decrease in the pH value, and the apparent rejection of qDxt was higher than that of Dxt when the pH was in the range of 4–8 because of an electrostatically repulsive interaction between positively charged grafted PDMAEMA chains and qDxt molecules. For grafted 0.5‐ePTFE films, 40KDxt was selectively separated from the 40KDxt/250KDxt mixture systems in water and from the 40KDxt/40KqDxt mixture systems at pH 6 using the difference in their apparent rejection; the separation factors in both systems increased with the grafted amount. These results indicate that grafted ePTFE films are applicable to positively charged ultrafiltration membranes.