New polymethylmethacrylate-polyurethane (PMMA-PU) membranes for hemodialysis applications

PMMA has been recently introduced in dialysis procedure for hollow fibre devices; in order improve efficiency, biocompatibility and mechanical properties new flat membranes were realized by spraying a PMMA-PU blend over a cylindrical rotating mandrel according to a phase inversion technique. Three different blends have been evaluated, namely: PMMA-PU (70-30), PMMA-PU (50-50), and PMMA-PU (20-80). Tensile tests showed that adding PU resulted in a substantial toughness increase, especially for PU content above 20%.