On studying the formation of PMMA asymmetric membranes through the thermally induced phase separation process

An investigation is conducted of the effect of the phase separation mechanism and flow properties on the formation of asymmetric polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) through the thermally induced phase separation technique. Experiments show that a wide range scan from 200 nm to 900 nm was carried out by UV/visible absorbance spectroscopy. No evidence of any absorption from either PMMA or sulfolane was found at 800 nm wavelength. Thus, as the binodal temperature is approached from above, the sharp increase in optical density can be explained as the fact that the incident light is scattered by the formation of large aggregates due to the phase separation.