n-Hexane induced swelling of thin PDMS films under non-equilibrium nanofiltration permeation conditions, resolved by spectroscopic ellipsometry
Abstract(#br)A nondestructive technique is presented for in-situ analysis of solvent induced membrane swelling. The technique is based on spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) and allows simultaneous measurement of membrane film thickness and solvent sorption. The attainable experimental conditions are only limited by the test cell (≤473.15 K, ≤20 MPa) and by far exceed those encountered in typical solvent resistant nanofiltration (SRNF) applications.