Desalination 200 (2006) 29–31 Presented at EUROMEMBRANE 2006, 24–28 September 2006, Giardini Naxos, Italy. 0011-9164/06/$– See front matter © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Toward nanoporous composite membranes with tailored block copolymers as selective layer Marcel Gawenda a *, Alexandra Sperschneider b , Felix Schacher c , Georg Krausch b , Axel Müller c , Mathias Ulbricht a a Lehrstuhl für Technische Chemie II, Universität Duisburg-Essen, 45117 Essen, Germany email: marcel.gawenda@uni-essen.de b Lehrstuhl für Physikalische Chemie II, Universität Bayreuth, 95440 Bayreuth, Germany c Lehrstuhl für Makromolekulare Chemie II, Universität Bayreuth, 95440 Bayreuth, Germany Received 25 October 2005; accepted 6 March 2006 The development of synthetic membranes featuring transport selectivity for molecules dif- ferent from water is a challenge of outstanding relevance. This field is strongly inspired by nature where highly specific transport through biological membranes is based on molecular recognition processes within macromolecular assemblies. In this collaborative project we are preparing and characterizing novel composite membranes for size- or charge-based membrane separation processes with higher selectivity. Commercially available porous membranes are used as support for thin layers of self-assembled block copoly- mers. The tailored diblock or triblock copolymers are synthesized by living ionic or controlled radi- cal polymerization [1], so that they can form microphase-separated nanostructures which may even be aligned into cylindrical morphologies with the characteristic axis perpendicular to the film surface [2,3]. Supported nanoporous films may then be obtained either via the selective dissolution of another polymer which had been added to form a polymer blend and which is compatible with the block of the copolymer forming the cylindrical domains, or via selective degradation of the copolymer block forming the cylindrical domains [3]. Depending on the pre- cursor block copolymer those pores may be also charged, and this charge may depend on the pH so that permeability and selectivity can be con- trolled by size or charge. As support membranes we use track-etched poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) membranes (Fig. 1) and commercial ultrafiltration mem- branes with barrier pore diameters ranging from ~5 to 3000 nm. In order to provide methods for anchoring and stabilizing the block copolymer film on the support membranes, surface functionalisations of the membranes by polymer-analogous reac- tions or graft copolymerization of thin functional copolymer layers are investigated [4]. Various surfaces are created to that the requirements in terms of surface energy and reactivity (by mixing/entanglement, by chemical reaction or by UV irradiation) for orienting and anchoring the block copolymer films on the support can be explored. *Corresponding author. doi:10.1016/j.desal.2006.03.230