Improved hemodialysis with hemocompatible polyethersulfone hollow fiber membranes: In vitro performance

Abstract We show that addition of nanozeolite (NZ) and vitamin E D‐α‐Tocopherol polyethylene glycol succinate (TPGS or T) considerably improves the performance of polyethersulfone (PES or P) hollow fiber membrane (HFM) for hemodialysis. Nanocomposite HFMs were manufactured using PES as a polymer, TPGS as an additive and NZ as a filler to give a composite membrane called PT‐NZ. HFMs were spun by dry‐wet spinning principle based on liquid‐liquid phase separation. TPGS and NZ were successfully incorporated in HFMs, as confirmed by EDX elemental mapping. The resultant PT‐NZ HFMs had improved hemocompatibility: lower percent hemolysis (0.28% in batch mode and 0.32% in continuous mode), lower platelet adhesion, higher coagulation time and lower protein adsorption (16.34 µg/cm²), compared with P, PT, and commercial (F60S) HFMs. The ultrafiltration coefficient of PT‐NZ HFM‐based module (274.59 mL/m²/h/mmHg) was ∼1.5‐times higher than that of F60S membranes (151.67 mL/m²/h/mmHg), and the solute rejection of both the membranes was comparable. The toxin clearance performance of lab‐scale PT‐NZ HFM‐based hemodialyzer with uremic toxin spiked goat blood was remarkably higher (five times) than that of F60S. Hence, the synthesized PT‐NZ HFMs are a potentially attractive membrane material for hemodialysis application, particularly due to decreased treatment time and minimal side reactions. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater, 106B: 1286–1298, 2018.