George A. Huff

Ionic polymer membranes

The use of membranes to fractionate solutions and mixtures of gases is well established. Dialysis was first used in 18541 but was not commercially exploited at that time. In 1870, the first synthetic membrane for ultrafiltration using copper ferrocyanide was prepared. Much later, however, with the development of polymer chemistry, a wide variety of synthetic materials for membranes became available. Many of these membranes were made from nitrocellulose, by a process first developed by William J. Elford.