A guide to establishing hollow fiber macroscopic properties for membrane applications

Production of advanced hollow fiber membranes involves optimizing permeation and mechanical properties. If mechanical properties are insufficient, time dependent losses in permeation performance will occur. Practically speaking, numerous hollow fiber properties are considered and established concurrently; however, such a discussion would be quite complex for a single manuscript. Therefore, this work focuses on the specification and establishment of large-scale macroscopic properties such as those identified in Table 1. With optimal macroscopic properties specified, a basic understanding of fiber spinning couples process variables and macroscopic properties. This paper focuses on dry-jet wet spinning and associated processing complications, since these complications represent the first practical hurdles that must be overcome to produce useful continuous fiber suitable for membrane applications.