CBE Seminar: William A. Phillip, University of Notre Dame, “High-Throughput Membrane Characterization to Guide Materials and Process Innovation at the Water-Energy Nexus”

Content

Title “High-Throughput Membrane Characterization to Guide Materials and Process Innovation at the Water-Energy Nexus” 

Host:  Jessica Schiffman

Abstract: 

Membranes represent a versatile separations platform with the potential to help deliver sustainable supplies of food, water, medicine, and energy to the growing global population. Realizing this potential requires overcoming barriers spanning the molecular to systems scales. To address this challenge, we have developed an automated diafiltration device that dramatically reduces the time and resources needed to characterize membrane transport properties. This platform enables rapid, high-throughput testing over a wide range of feed compositions. When paired with the tools of data science, it accelerates both materials discovery and process optimization. The integration of automation and analytics provides real-time insights into separation mechanisms, reducing hands-on experimental time from 50 hours to just 40 minutes, while distinguishing between adsorption and rejection-based separations. 

By rapidly characterizing polymer membranes, the system addresses critical knowledge gaps related to the interfacial processes that govern solute–solute selectivity and performance in complex, multicomponent feed streams. We demonstrate these capabilities with self-assembled copolymer membranes whose pore wall chemistry can be tailored post-synthetically to enable selective separations through electrostatic interactions and molecular recognition. Diafiltration efficiently elucidates how subtle variations in membrane chemistry translate into measurable changes in transport properties. By advancing both membrane materials and characterization tools, this work provides a pathway toward more efficient separation processes at the water-energy nexus.