(314a) Combinatorial Chemistry and High Throughput for Anti-Fouling Membranes

Modifying filtration membranes using graft polymerization is an attractive alternate to developing new polymers with anti-fouling characteristics.  To expand, refine and optimize the discovery and separation characteristics of new surfaces using the 96-membrane well format with high throughput–atmospheric pressure plasma (HTP-APP) method and to elucidate the behavior of protein-resistant chemistries, we use combinatorial chemistry to prepare an expanded library of vinyl monomers, graft these newly synthesized monomers, test their efficacy for improving filtration performance, and select winners; and fine-tune the grafting and filtration conditions of selected winners.  We react acid vinyl monomers or methacryloyl chloride with a series of amine vinyl compounds to obtain new vinyl amide monomers for graft polymerization.  For selected compounds, we have purified, fractionated and confirmed their structure with mass spectroscopy.  A number of amide monomer-modified PES membranes were identified with the lower fouling and higher permeation than the unmodified or control membrane.  Their low protein-resistant properties are comparable with previously identified surfaces.