Wr. Bowen et al., VISUALIZATION OF AN ULTRAFILTRATION MEMBRANE BY NONCONTACT ATOMIC-FORCE MICROSCOPY AT SINGLE PORE RESOLUTION, Journal of membrane science, 110(2), 1996, pp. 229-232
Non-contact atomic force microscopy (AFM) has been used to investigate
the surface pore structure of a polyethersulfone ultrafiltration memb
rane of specified molecular weight cut off (MWCO) 25 000 (ES625, PCI M
embrane Systems). Excellent images at up to single pore resolution wer
e obtained. This is the first time that AFM images of a membrane at su
ch high resolution have been presented. Analysis of the images gave a
mean pore size of 5.1 nm with a standard deviation of 1.1 nm. The resu
lts have been compared to previously published studies of membranes of
comparable MWCO using contact AFM and electron microscopy. Non-contac
t AFM is a powerful means of studying the surface pore characteristics
of ultrafiltration membranes.