MEMBRANES FOR ULTRAFILTRATION, OF GRADUATED FINENESS DOWN TO MOLECULAR SIEVES

The use of cellophane in ultrafiltration is recommended. It is shown that after it has been swollen in water it does not hold back molecules such as sucrose but that it holds back all but the finest colloidal particles. Two methods are given for progressively decreasing the size of the pores until the cellophane becomes a very fine molecular sieve. A sieve structure as the chief factor seems most in accordance with our experience of this and other ultrafilters. Collodion membranes may also be used as molecular sieves but their properties are inconstant. Bedicher is a very fine and rapid filtering ultrafilter and pig's bladder holds back a fair proportion of such molecules as sucrose and potassium chloride. Notes are made on the behavior of cellophane in aqueous and non-aqueous solutions. It is emphasized that ultrafiltration is distinctive and has but little relation to diffusion, dialysis, osmosis, electroosmosis or thermodynamics.