Facile fabrication of a novel microporous Schiff-base networks polymer membrane on surface modified porous α-Al2O3 support

A surface modification strategy was applied by using 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) covalent linkage between the Schiff-base networks (SNW) polymer layers and porous α-Al2O3 ceramic support. The SNW-1 polymer membrane and powders resulting from the polycondensation reaction between melamine and terephthalaldehyde without the polycondensation catalysts were investigated by SEM and FT-IR. The results show that the discrete and few covered polymer layers were formed on the unmodified porous α-Al2O3 support. In contrast, the uniform and compact SNW-1 polymer membrane was fabricated successfully on the APTES modified α-Al2O3 support by in-situ catalyst-free polycondensation method, indicating that the APTES surface modification facilitates the growth of the novel SNW-1 polymer membrane on the porous α-Al2O3 support.