Hydrophilic polysulfone film prepared from polyethylene glycol monomethylether via coupling graft

In the presence of acid-acceptor Na2CO3, the nucleophilic substitution between chloromethylated polysulfone (CMPSF) and polyethylene glycol monomethylether (PEGME) was conducted. Polyethylene glycol (PEG) was coupling-grafted onto the side chains of polysulfone (PSF) so that the graft copolymer PSF-g-PEG was prepared and the hydrophilic modification of polysulfone membrane material was realized. The chemical structure of PSF-g-PEG was characterized by FTIR and 1H NMR. The influence of the main factors on the coupling graft reaction was investigated. The water static contact angle of PSF-g-PEG membrane was determined and its property of resisting protein pollution was examined by using bovine serum albumin (BSA) as a model protein. The experimental results show that the coupling graft reaction between CMPSF and PEGME can proceed successfully, and the reaction of chloromethyl groups of CMPSF with the hydroxyl end groups of PEGME is a typical SN1 nucleophilic substitution reaction. The polarity of the solvents and the reaction temperature greatly influence the reaction. The suitable solvent is dimethyl acetamide with stronger polarity and 70 °C is a suitable reaction temperature. After reaction of 36 h, the grafting degree of PEG can reach 48 g/100 g and the product yield is about 73.6%. The contact angle of PSF-g-PEG membrane declines rapidly with the increase of PEG grafting degree, displaying the obvious enhancement of the hydrophilicity. The adsorption capacity of BSA on PSF-g-PEG membrane decreases remarkably with the increase of PEG grafting degree, showing excellent antifouling ability of PSF-g-PEG membrane for proteins.