Synthesis and characterization of porous composite membranes with hydrophilic/hydrophobic sides.

Hydrophilic/hydrophobic polymer composite membranes have known a growth of interest in various separation processes, such as desalination of water, pervaporation, reverse osmosis, gas separation, micro- and nanofiltration. In this work we obtained porous hydrophilic/hydrophobic composite membranes by RF magnetron sputtering deposition of polytetrafluoroethylene-like (PTFE) thin films on one side of a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) track etched membrane, used as a porous substrate. The results show that the obtained PTFE material containing various CF x bonds is present both on the membrane surface and in its pores as a thin film, without completely covering of the pores in-depth. We proved that the membrane presents one hydrophilic side (PET) and one hydrophobic side (PTFE), with flowing characteristics (tested for gas) maintained even in the situation when the pores seems completely covered with PTFE material on the surface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]