Amphiphilic graft copolymers are excellent additives for the development of antifouling membranes by nonsolvent induced phase separation. We report a convenient approach to the synthesis of novel graft copolymers with hydrophobic polyacrylonitrile (PAN) backbones and hydrophilic poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (PHEMA) side chains. Atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) of 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate was carried out with poly(acrylonitrile-co-p-chloromethyl styrene) (PAN-co-PCMS) as a macroinitiator in the presence of CuCl/2,2'-bipyridine at 50 °C in dimethyl sulfoxide. Kinetics of the graft polymerization was also evaluated. The synthesis of poly(acrylonitrile-co-p-chloromethyl styrene-g-2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (PAN-co-(PCMS-g-PHEMA)) can be relatively controlled when CMS (the ATRP sites) unit in the macroinitiator is around 5 mol%. Both the macroinitiators and graft copolymers were characterized by FTIR, NMR and GPC. The surface morphology and wettability of the copolymer films were studied by AFM and water contact angle measurement, respectively. We demonstrate that phase segregation between the PAN-co-PCMS backbones and the PHEMA side chains takes place and the surface hydrophilicity of the graft copolymers increases with the length of the PHEMA side chains. Because these amphiphilic graft copolymers can be synthesized in mass, they will be useful as latent additives for the fabrication of advanced PAN separation membranes.
Porous carbon membranes were favorably fabricated through the pyrolysis of polyacrylonitrile（PAN） precursors, which were prepared with a template-free technique-thermally induced phase separation. These carbon membranes possess hierarchical pores, including cellular macropores across the whole membranes and much small pores in the matrix as well as on the pore walls. Nitrogen adsorption indicates micropores（1.47 and 1.84 nm） and mesopores（2.21 nm） exist inside the carbon membranes, resulting in their specific surface area as large as 1062 m2/g. The carbon membranes were used to adsorb organic dyes（methyl orange, Congo red, and rhodamine B） from aqueous solutions based on their advantages of hierarchical pore structures and large specific surface area. It is particularly noteworthy that the membranes present a selective adsorption towards methyl orange, whose molecular size（1.2 nm） is smaller than those of Congo red（2.3 nm） and rhodamine B（1.8 nm）. This attractive result can be attributed to the steric structure matching between the molecular size and the pore size, rather than electrostatic attraction. Furthermore, the used carbon membranes can be easily regenerated by hydrochloric acid, and their recovery adsorption ratio maintains above 90% even in the third cycle. This work may provide a new route for carbon-based adsorbents with hierarchical pores via a template-free approach, which could be promisingly applied to selectively remove dye contaminants in aqueous effluents.
