Bi-soft segment polyurethane membranes for Membrane Blood Oxygenators

EasyChair Preprint 984

Abstract

Bi-soft segment polyurethane (PU) membranes containing poly(propylene oxide) as the first soft segment (SS) and different second SSs: poly(butadienediol) (PBDO), poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) and polycaprolactone (PCL) were prepared and characterized in terms of phase segregation, gas permeability and hemocompatibiliy with a view to their incorporation in membrane blood oxygenators (MBOs). Results show that a higher degree of mixing between microphases resulted in lower CO2 permeabilities for the PU/PBDO and PU/PCL membranes. The PU/PDMS membranes present the highest permeability towards O2 and CO2 and phase segregation between the two SSs in not evident. The introduction of PCL as a second SS proved to be a major contribution to the enhancement of hemocompatibility. The versatility of the morphologies displayed by the addition of a second SS is an important asset in the design of novel and more efficient PU membranes for blood oxygenation. The feature of phase separation tailoring may bring insight into the transport mechanisms and the optimization of membrane performance both in terms of the permeation fluxes as well as hemocompatibility.

Keyphrases: Gas permeation, Hemocompatibility, bi-soft segment polyurethane membrane, membrane blood oxygenator, phase segragation

@booklet{EasyChair:984,
  author    = {Mónica Faria and Tiago Eusébio and Maria Norberta de Pinho},
  title     = {Bi-soft segment polyurethane membranes for Membrane Blood Oxygenators},
  howpublished = {EasyChair Preprint 984},
  year      = {EasyChair, 2019}}