Transparent membranes from PEEK-WC

Membrane technology offers a wide range of applications and advantages in many fields. On the other hand, PEEK-WC is widely employed to produce membranes, also after chemical modifications, with different morphologies and different techniques, and for many applications. In this work transparent PEEK-WC membranes were produced, modifying just the preparation conditions. Transparent membranes find a lot of applications, from display protection film, in odontology, as impermeable pellicles, in cultural heritage protection, but also in traditional fields, as gas separation. Not all the membranes are transparent, but it seems clear that the oxygen presence during membrane formation is responsible of non transparence of the PEEK-WC membranes. Our membranes result optically transparent, also when their thickness is not so thin. By means of contact angle measurements, the membranes show a good resistance to sulfuric and nitric acid at low concentrations. Absorption coefficient measurements and SEM analysis were carried out in order to quantify the membranes transparence and the morphological modifications.