Copolymer having amphiphilic blocks, and use thereof for manufacturing polymer filtration membranes

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9873095-B2
Application number	US-201414775239-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 11, 2014
Priority date	Mar 13, 2013
Publication date	Jan 23, 2018
Grant date	Jan 23, 2018

Abstract

A copolymer having amphiphilic blocks includes at least one first hydrophilic block, obtainable from n-butyl acrylate and hydroxyethyl methacrylate monomers, and a second hydrophobic block likely to be obtained from a methyl methacrylate monomer. The copolymer is found to be particularly advantageous for use as an additive for manufacturing a polymer filtration membrane, particularly a PVDF membrane, particularly via a phase inversion method.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An amphiphilic block copolymer comprising at least a first hydrophilic block obtainable from n-butyl acrylate and hydroxyethyl methacrylate monomers and a second hydrophobic block obtainable from a methyl methacrylate monomer.

2. The copolymer as claimed in claim 1 , consisting of a diblock copolymer.

3. The copolymer as claimed in claim 1 , wherein said first hydrophilic block is essentially composed of a random copolymer comprising n-butyl acrylate and hydroxyethyl methacrylate monomers.

4. The copolymer as claimed in claim 1 , wherein said second hydrophobic block is composed of at least 50% of polymethyl methacrylate, the remainder being formed of a mixture of methacrylate or acrylate monomers.

5. The copolymer as claimed in claim 4 , wherein the remainder is formed of a mixture of n-butyl acrylate and hydroxyethyl methacrylate monomers.

6. The copolymer as claimed in claim 1 , consisting of a (poly(n-butyl acrylate)-co-poly(hydroxyethyl methacrylate)-b-hydrophobic) block copolymer where the hydrophobic block is composed of at least 50% of polymethyl methacrylate, the remainder being formed of a mixture of methacrylate or acrylate monomers.

7. The copolymer as claimed in claim 6 , wherein the remainder is formed of a mixture of n-butyl acrylate and hydroxyethyl methacrylate monomers.

8. The copolymer as claimed in claim 1 , exhibiting a weight-average molecular weight of between 10 kg/mol and 400 kg/mol.

9. The copolymer as claimed in claim 1 , wherein said first hydrophilic block and/or said second hydrophobic block is obtainable by a controlled radical polymerization process.

10. The copolymer as claimed in claim 9 , obtainable by SFRP polymerization.

11. The copolymer as claimed in claim 10 , wherein said first hydrophilic block and/or said second hydrophobic block is obtainable by SFRP polymerization in the presence of at least one alkoxyamine.

12. The copolymer as claimed in claim 11 , wherein said first hydrophilic block and/or said second hydrophobic block is obtainable by SFRP polymerization in the presence of a monoalkoxyamine of formula (I):

13. A method for manufacturing a polymer filtration membrane, comprising coagulating a collodion comprising a polymer matrix and an amphiphilic block copolymer as claimed in claim 1 as an additive.

14. A polymer membrane, comprising a hydrophobic polymer matrix and an amphiphilic block copolymer as claimed in claim 1 .

15. The polymer membrane as claimed in claim 14 , wherein the hydrophobic polymer matrix comprises a fluoro polymer.

16. The polymer membrane as claimed in claim 15 , wherein said fluoro polymer is a polyvinylidene fluoride homopolymer.

17. The polymer membrane as claimed in claim 14 , comprising from 60 to 90% by weight of said hydrophobic polymer matrix and from 10 to 40% by weight of said amphiphilic block copolymer.

18. The polymer membrane as claimed in claim 14 , obtainable by a phase inversion process starting from a solution comprising said hydrophobic polymer matrix, said amphiphilic block copolymer and, if appropriate, one or more other additives, in solution in a solvent.

19. The polymer membrane as claimed in claim 18 , obtainable by a phase inversion process from a solution comprising the following proportions by weight:
from 10 to 40% of said hydrophobic polymer matrix;
from 0.1 to 30% by weight of said amphiphilic block copolymer;
from 40 to 90% of solvent;
if appropriate, from 0 to 20% by weight of other additive(s).

20. The polymer membrane as claimed in claim 19 , wherein said hydrophobic polymer matrix is PVDF.

21. A method of treating effluents, comprising filtering an effluent through a polymer membrane as claimed in claim 14 .

22. The method as claimed in claim 21 wherein the effluent is water.

Assignees

• Polymem
• Arkema France
• Centre Nat Rech Scient
• Univ Paul Sabatier Toulouse
• Univ Toulouse 3 Paul Sabatier

Inventors

• Lorain Olivier
• Espenan Jean-Michel
• Remigy Jean-Christophe
• Lahitte Jean-Francois
• Rouch Jean-Christophe
• Savart Thibaut
• Gerard Pierre
• Magnet Stephanie

Classifications

• C08F2438/02

  Stable Free Radical Polymerisation [SFRP]; Nitroxide Mediated Polymerisation [NMP] for, e.g. using 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxyl [TEMPO] · CPC title

• C02F1/44

  by dialysis, osmosis or reverse osmosis {(general membrane separation processes B01D61/00, membrane modules B01D63/00, electrodialysis C02F1/4693, combination of membrane modules and bioreactors C02F3/1268)} · CPC title

• C08F293/00

  Macromolecular compounds obtained by polymerisation on to a macromolecule having groups capable of inducing the formation of new polymer chains bound exclusively at one or both ends of the starting macromolecule (on to polymers modified by introduction of unsaturated end groups C08F290/02) · CPC title

• C08F293/005

  using free radical "living" or "controlled" polymerisation, e.g. using a complexing agent · CPC title

• C08L53/00

  Compositions of block copolymers containing at least one sequence of a polymer obtained by reactions only involving carbon-to-carbon unsaturated bonds; Compositions of derivatives of such polymers · CPC title