UDEL®  P-1700 NT LCD - Solvay Advanced Polymers - 

Udel P-1700 NT LCD polysulfone is especially well suited for the fabrication of porous membranes for filtration applications. The membranes are usually in the form of hollow fibers, but tube, plate, or spiral wound forms are also used. The membranes are used in a variety of applications, such as potable water treatment, waste water treatment, blood processing, pharmaceutical purification, gas separation, dairy product processing, and for processing a variety of food products.

This resin offers the membrane producer good solubility in commercially available dipolar aprotic solvents, such as dimethylacetamide (DMAC), dimethylformamide, (DMF) and N-methyl pyrrolidone (NMP), which are completely miscible in water, very good control of pore size and pore size distribution, high membrane strength, and good film-forming properties.

Typical grades of polysulfone contain a cyclic dimer that can precipitate from solution, plugging the process filters and limiting the life of the dope solutions. Udel P-1700 NT LCD is specially manufactured to have a lower amount of cyclic dimer. It also has a higher number average molecular weight (Mn) for a given weight average molecular weight (Mw) leading to higher fiber strength, which means fewer fiber breakages, fewer surface defects and lower rejects.

The resultant membranes have excellent hydrolytic stability and are compatible with pH's ranging from 2 to 13. They tolerate a variety of cleaning methods, including hydrochloric acid or sodium hydroxide. The resin has a Tg of 185°C indicating high thermal resistance.