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Updated: May 23, 2026

Self-Assembly of Hybrid Lipid Membranes Doped with Hydrophobic Organic Molecules at the Water/Air Interface
Published on: May 1, 2020
Functionalization of organic membranes by polyelectrolyte multilayer assemblies: application to the removal of copper
C Magnenet1, S Lakard, C C Buron
1Université de Franche-Comté, Institut UTINAM-UMR, CNRS 6213, 16 Route de Gray, 25030 Besançon cedex, France.
Abstract:
The functionalization of an organic polyethersulfone membrane (PES) was performed by alternating deposition of poly(allylamine hydrochloride) (PAH) and poly(sodium 4-styrene sulfonate) (PSS), leading to the formation of a polyelectrolyte multilayer film (PEM). The resulting assembly was characterized by tangential streaming potential measurements to determine the charge of the modified membranes as a function of the polyelectrolyte solution concentration and as a function of the immersion time of the membrane in the polyelectrolyte solutions. Then, the modified membranes were used to perform the ultrafiltration of aqueous solutions containing copper(II) ions. Different operating conditions were tested including: polyelectrolyte concentration, polyelectrolyte nature, thickness of the PEM film or pH of the Cu(2+) solutions. These filtration experiments demonstrated that it was possible to obtain a satisfactory retention of the copper ions (88%), thus proving that this type of assembly can be useful for the removal of copper ions from contaminated aqueous solutions.
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