Negligible ageing in poly(ether-ether-ketone) membranes widens application range for solvent processing

Organic solvent nanofiltration membranes have been prepared from poly(ether-ether-ketone) (PEEK) by phase inversion. Remarkably, these membranes undergo negligible ageing, even under extreme conditions of high temperature air annealing, and high temperature solute filtration with aggressive solvents. This negligible ageing of PEEK membranes is contrasted with substantial ageing of crosslinked polybenzimidazole (PBI) and polyimide (PI) membranes. After air annealing at 120 degrees C, PBI and PI membranes become brittle and lose all permeance, whereas PEEK membranes remain flexible and retain a constant permeance of similar to 0.2 L h(-1) m(-2) bar(-1) for tetrahydrofuran (THF). The structural change in PBI and PI membranes is attributed to polymer transition from a non-equilibrium glassy state towards an equilibrium state at which chain packing precludes permeation of solvent. High temperature filtrations in DMF up to 140 degrees C for the three polymeric membranes showed PEEK performance to be stable and consistent with negligible ageing, whereas PBI and PI rapidly loose stability.