Filtration membranes and related compositions, methods and systems

1. A method of making a filtration membrane with embedded dendritic nanoparticles, the method comprising:

contacting a polymeric component, a dendritic component, and a solvent to provide a blend,

contacting the blend with a cross-linking component, for a time and under a condition to cause the in situ formation of dendritic nanoparticles comprising covalently cross-linked dendritic polymer to provide a dope solution; and

casting the dope solution to provide a filtration membrane with embedded dendritic nanoparticles.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein contacting a polymeric component, a dendritic component, and a solvent to provide a blend is performed by mixing the polymeric component and dendritic component in the solvent to obtain concentration of the dendritic component in the blend between about 3.5 wt % and 7.5 wt % of the blend.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein contacting the blend with a cross-linking component is performed by mixing the cross-linking component with the blend to obtain a concentration of the dendritic component at a concentration of about 1.5 times the concentration of the cross-linking component.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the polymeric component is formed by a polymer according to Formula I:

wherein:

Q, Y, and Z comprise saturated aliphatic hydrocarbon, aromatic hydrocarbon, or unsaturated aliphatic hydrocarbons;

m, l, and k independently are integers ranging between 0-50;

at least one of m, l, or k is not equal to zero;

j is an integer ranging between 50-500; and

wherein at least one of Q (when Q≠0), Y (when Y≠0), or Z (when Z≠0), comprises a polymer component functional group.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein Q, Y, and Z are independently selected from the group consisting of Formulas II-X

wherein:

n=0 or 1;

m is an integer ranging from 0-15; and

X is a functional group comprising an atom selected from O, S, N, P, or F; and R 1 -R 18 are independently selected from: the polymer component functional group; hydrogen; C 1 -C 20 linear, branched, saturated, unsaturated, or aryl hydrocarbon which are either substituted or unsubstituted with O, N, B, S, P; or substituted O, N, B, S, or P.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the dendritic component is formed by a polymer according to Formula XI:

wherein:

n and m are integers ranging from 2-5;

R 1 -R 8 are independently selected from hydrogen or hyperbranched polymer moieties;

X 1 and X 2 are N; and

X 4 -X 5 are selected from amine, amide, imide, and carbamate.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the cross-linking component is formed a compound of Formula (XVI) or (XVII) below:

wherein X 1 and X 2 , by way of example, can be independently selected from (COCl, COBr, COI, Cl, Br, I, OSO 3 CH 3 , OSO 3 C 7 H 7 , n can range from 1-15, and wherein R can be H, alkyl, or epoxy substituted alkyl.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the covalently cross-linked dendritic polymer is a polyimine.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the polyimine is poly(ethyleneimine).

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the dendritic nanoparticles are present in a concentration greater than about 20 weight %.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the dendritic nanoparticles are present in a concentration greater than about 40 weight %.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein contacting a polymeric component, a dendritic component, and a solvent to provide a blend is performed by mixing the polymeric component and dendritic component in the solvent for about 1-24 hours at about 25-85° C.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein contacting the blend with a cross-linking component is performed by mixing the cross-linking component with the blend for about 1-24 hours at about 25-85° C.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein casting the dope solution to provide a filtration membrane with embedded dendritic nanoparticles is performed by phase inversion casting.