Novel nylon-supported organic–inorganic hybrid membrane with hierarchical pores as a potential immobilized metal affinity adsorbent

Chitosan-based porous organic–inorganic hybrid membranes supported by microfiltration nylon membranes were prepared, in which γ-glycidoxypropyltrimethoxysilane (GPTMS) was used as an inorganic source as well as crosslinking reagent. Polyethylene glycol (PEG) with different molecular weight and content was used as imprinting molecule for morphology control. In situ crosslinking of chitosan and simultaneous polymerization of GPTMS in PEG template environment endowed the hybrid membrane with specific characteristics. Distinct hybrid effect between chitosan (CS) and GPTMS was revealed by shifting in X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern, decomposition in simultaneous thermogravimetry and differential scanning calorimetry (TG/DSC) testing. As manifested by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), the molecular weight and content of PEG had remarkable effect on the resulting surface morphology of the hybrid membrane and a given surface morphology could be obtained by extracting of the imprinted PEG molecular. Among three types of porogen used: PEG 400, PEG 4000 and PEG 20 000, only PEG 20 000 could result in a porous surface. Moreover, a special porous surface with three-dimensional (3D) hierarchical structure-in-structure pore fashion was obtained when content of PEG 20 000 was controlled at 15%. Experimental results also showed that the hybrid membrane had low swelling ratio and high stability in acidic solution. After conveniently coordinated with copper ions, the porous metal chelating hybrid membrane could effectively adsorb the model protein, bovine serum albumin (BSA). As expected, the hybrid membrane imprinted with 15% PEG 20 000 had remarkably high copper ion binding and BSA adsorption capacity, which might result from the large surface area, high ligand density and suitable interconnected 3D hierarchical porous surface.