Hydrogenated and Sulfonated Triblock Copolymer for Clean Water
Open Access
Author:
Thomas, Wyatt
Area of Honors:
Chemical Engineering
Degree:
Bachelor of Science
Document Type:
Thesis
Thesis Supervisors:
Hee Jeung Oh, Thesis Supervisor Michael John Janik, Thesis Honors Advisor
Keywords:
polystyrene-block-polybutadiene-block-polystyrene Water Uptake Ion Exchange Capacity Hydrogenation Sulfonation crosslinking clean water desalination NMR characterization Film Casting
Abstract:
Recent studies have explored the use of sulfonated co-block polymers for desalination applications. Use of these types of films would make the sensitivity issues of current films used commercially for desalination trivial. The objectives of this thesis were to 1) begin exploring polystyrene-block-polybutadiene-block-polystyrene (SBS) as an option for desalination applications while pursuing ways to optimize SBS via hydrogenation and sulfonation reactions and 2) compare the performance of similar sulfonated membranes via their ion exchange capacity and water uptake values. This thesis contains some of the first kinetic data for the hydrogenation of SBS and a discussion on decoupling ion exchange capacity and water uptake values by independently controlling the degree of sulfonation and degree of crosslinking in the styrene-blocks and butadiene block of SBS, respectively.
