Track-Etched Membranes
I briefly experimented with the track-etched membranes this morning and found that they are extremely fragile and near impossible to cut. I disassembled a few of the microcons and found that a circular piece of paper the size of a hole punch (like the one on the bench by the mac) fits perfectly into the microcon set up and seems to make a good seal with the o-ring. Unfortunately when I tried to cut the track-etched membrane it stretched and shredded rather than cut. I also tried to just assemble the microcon with a whole large piece of track-etched membrane hopping with the o-ring and the “clip-in” format of the microcon setup that the membrane would fit. This created a very wrinkled and wavy membrane in the microcon (its was not flat). So as of now now numbers for the track-etched membrane. Also, do we know which membrane we want to test, there seems to be five different types?
We would like to try them all the TE membranes to get something similar to Maryna’s data on permeability vs. porosity.
Sounds like you need to make a little cookie-cutter punch. Art should be able to whip something up for you quickly on the lathe. You just need a sharp edge around a circle, kind of like a sharpened pipe. Then you should be able to just press it on a semi rigid backplate and punch out the circle that you need…