Structural changes of polysulfone membrane use for hemodialysis in the consecutive regime: nanometric analysis by AFM

Nowadays, the hemodialytic treatment of patients with either acute or chronic renal failure has been improved by promoting biocompatibility in the use of new materials and improve membrane surface characteristics. Low and high flux polysulfone membranes (PM) used in dialysis and ultra filtration have been studied in order to understand the geometry and surface chemistry of the pores at inner (nanometric) and outer (micrometric) membrane parts. The surface changes of polysulfone cartridge membrane (PM) during different number of consecutive reuse trials: after 1 st , 10 th and 23 th times of use. The morphology of the hollow fibers surfaces was studied by means of the atomic force microscopy (AFM) imaging and the surface roughness analysis. The roughness of both inner and outer part of PM surface increases with numbers of reuse trails. Thus, small and medium size pores were wiped out when the number of uses changed from zero to 23 on the outer surface. The pore density decreases. The inner part of membrane shows some nanometric size deformation in forms of new openings and raptures. The AFM analysis show differences in the PM morphology at the nanometric level, not previously revealed, which could be important in the evaluation of the PM.