Polysulfones and their applications

Polysulfones are a group of high-performance thermoplastics with demonstrated utility in various industries such as medicine, pharmaceuticals, transportation, electronics, food and beverage, and water treatment. Polysulfones possess two primary forms in application: key structural components of various machines or thin membranes for filtration. Polysulfones are now integral to modern filtration housings and membranes for reverse osmosis, ultrafiltration and dialysis. Their inherent high bond dissociation energies make them resistant to hydrolytic attack in both acidic and basic environments, and at high temperatures. They are also biocompatible and have the capacity to adsorb endotoxins. Consequently, they are used in applications which call for constant exposure to water or harsh redox environments such as plumbing, implantable medical devices - including dialysis membranes, in steam autoclaves, to immobilize biosorbants and catalysts, and in waste water remediation. Their dielectric and insulating properties can be tuned to improve conversion of solar energy in perovskite solar cells, to increase current output in fuel cell proton exchange membranes at high temperatures and to increase the capacitance of supercapacitors. Their unique mechanical properties can be utilized in increasing and decreasing the crack resistance and propagation respectively in adhesive epoxy resins. Polyethersulfone blends with carbon or graphene nanosheets are more forgiving with regard to the trade off between gas selectivity and permeability, such that acceptable throughput may be obtained with high separation. For this reason, they are used in decarbonization technology, syngas composition optimization and separating hydrogen from hydrocarbons.