EPJ

2024 Impact factor 2.2
EPJ E - Soft Matter and Biological Physics
Soft Matter and Biological Physics
\n This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ), CBLU, University of Leeds * revised and updated by: Marcus Hennecke, Ross Moore, Herb Swan * with significant contributions from: Jens Lippmann, Marek Rouchal, Martin Wilck and others -->

Eur. Phys. J. E 2, 117-123

Porous structure of membranes of an acrylonitrile copolymer. Porosity, 1H-NMR permeability

A. Viallat - M.M. Margulies

Laboratoire de Spectrométrie Physique, Université J. Fourier, CNRS, BP 87, 38402 Saint Martin d'Héres cedex, France
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Received 8 July 1999

Abstract
Nanoporous polymer membranes (porosity $\phi\approx 0.7$) used for dialysis are studied from NMR relaxation times of water confined in the pore space. Fast interpore water diffusion is observed. Two structural parameters are evidenced: i) a reduced NMR relaxation time, $\tau$, which reflects the width of the pore-size distribution; ii) the average polymer-grain size of the solid matrix deduced from NMR experiments performed on membranes partially filled by water. A relation is found between the ratio $k/\tau^2$, where k is the permeability to water and the porosity. This relation is in qualitative agreement with numerical simulations reported in the literature on low-porosity systems and with experimental results obtained for sedimentary rocks and for fused glass model systems. It supports the idea that $\tau$ is the relevant structural parameter to describe convective transport in a wide class of porous systems.

PACS
81.05.Rm Porous materials; granular materials - 76.60.Es Relaxation effects - 47.55.Mh Flows through porous media

Copyright EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag

Conference announcements