MEMBRANE MICROSTRUCTURE EVALUATED WITH SO LUTE PERMEABILITIES THROUGHCOLLAGEN-GEL FLAT MEMBRANES PREPARED IN DIFFERENT CONDITIONS

Permeability for 14 solutes of four flat membranes of type 1 atelocoll agen prepared by different methods using crosslinking with glutaraldeh yde are analyzed by the tortuous capillary pore model with their water contents. The results suggest that aggregation of atelocollagen molec ule and crosslinking density in the membrane depend on the preparation condition of the membrane. Microstructure of the membranes is discuss ed with the results obtained from the analysis with the tortuous capil lary pore model referring to the dependency of the solute permeabiliti es on molecular weight of the solutes. In conclusion, we find that var ious microstructures including heterogeneous ones, are obtainable by c ontrolling the preparation method of collagen membrane, despite the fa ct that the collagen membrane was a hydrogel. A collagen membrane prep ared by the our method is expected to be applied to hybrid artificial organ needed for controlling mass transfer in it because the collagen membrane has a molecular sieve effect at all molecular weights caused by the microstructure.