Polyhipe foam materials as filtration media

Abstract

A novel method of preparing low-density microporous polymeric foam materials has been utilised to produce media which are effective in crossflow microfiltration applications. Polyhipe polymer (PHP) is produced by the polymerisation of a high-internal-phase emulsion (HIPE), resulting in a homogeneous, highly porous, low-density, open cellular material. Crossflow filtration modules made from PHP have been tested using a computer-controlled filtration unit to investigate the effects of membrane skin porosity and surface modification on their filtration performance.