Porous Polymer Membranes by Hard Templating – A Review

Membranes are designed to bridge a precise separation process at the nanoscale with industrial applications running at cubic meters per hour. This review outlines materials applied in membrane production with a particular focus on polymers. Membrane performance and created value are directly linked to controlled pore formation. Their economic relevance has created a number of large companies and associated academic research at top institutions. The authors review, therefore, starts from well‐established techniques applied in products and then moves on to evolving concepts from academia. Pore formation through hard templating is a versatile field for separation processes. A more detailed view is given on the two known concepts for nanopore formation, namely colloidal templates and random hard salt templating. A comparison between these two concepts underlines their relevance to combine a process specific separation with large scale manufacturing requirements (i.e., upscale possibility, flexible process control and environmental impact).