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Updated: Jan 24, 2026

Laser Micromachining for Polymer Surface Topography Design
Published on: September 19, 2025
The Role of Surfaces in Gas Transport Through Polymer Membranes
Giuseppe Firpo1, Elena Angeli2, Patrizia Guida3
1Nanomed Labs, Physics Department, University of Genova, Via Dodecaneso, 33, 16146 Genova, Italy. giuseppe.firpo@unige.it.
Abstract:
This paper describes a procedure to measure the permeability P, diffusivity D, and rate of adsorption k1, thus determining the solubility S and rate of desorption k2 of He, N2, O2, CH4, and CO2 on a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) membrane. The described procedure is able to determine experimentally all the physical quantities that characterize the gas transport process through a thin rubber polymer membrane. The experiments were carried out at room temperature and at a transmembrane pressure of 1 atm. The results are in good agreement with the available data in the literature and offer an evaluation of k1 and k2.
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