Membranes with through-thickness porosity prepared by unidirectional freezing

Directional freezing is a simple and environmentally friendly method for producing aligned porous materials. Porous structures of uniaxially aligned nanoparticles can be produced by unidirectional freezing a concentrated nanoparticle dispersion and subsequent freeze-drying. However, mechanically strong through-thickness membranes have seldom been reported. The film prepared by directional freezing and subsequent freeze-drying is usually too weak...