Manufacturing and Separation Characteristics of Hemodialysis Membranes to Improve Toxin Removal Rate

With the recently growing interest in health care, hemodialysis is being performed not only to treat patients with renal disease but also to improve blood circulation. At present, filters used for hemodialysis are manufactured only in certain countries, and all other countries must rely on imports. In this study, polyethersulfone (PES), which has excellent blood compatibility, was used as the main material to develop hemodialysis membranes for hemodialysis filters, and these hemodialysis membranes were prepared by adding a hydrophilic polymer, polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), and varying the type of nonsolvent during the manufacturing process to improve the toxin removal rate and biocompatibility. The addition of PVP was confirmed through attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR), and the structure of the membranes depending on the nonsolvent was analyzed through scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) images. The contact angle results indicated that the hydrophilicity of the membrane surface was improved as the concentration of PVP increased. The results of the toxin filtration efficiency experiment using urea, creatinine, and bovine serum albumin (BSA) confirmed removal rates of 58.8% and 56.87%, respectively, and a protein loss of less than 8%. Also, cell viability was over 90% at the PVP concentration of 2% or higher. A preliminary study was conducted on the improvement of toxin filtration efficiency and the development potential of these hemodialysis membranes with excellent biocompatibility.