LIQUID CRYSTALLINE POLYURETHANES. PHYSICOCHEMICAL CHARACTERISTICS AND PERVAPORATION PROPERTIES

Although the transport of small molecules through polymer membranes has been extensively studied for a long time, understanding of the transport mechanism is still far from satisfactory. This in turn makes difflcult the search for new membrane materials with the desired transport characteristics. Therefore it is of the utmost interest to study the correlations between a polymer's structure and morphology and its transport properties. Generally, polyurethanes serve as excellent polymer materials for such studies since their physical and chemical properties can be widely and systematically modified by varying the length, composition and chemical structure of the hard and soft segments. In this paper liquid crystalline polyurethanes are presented as new membrane materials for liquld separation and their transport properties with respect to molecular and supermolecular-structure are discussed.