We have developed thermo-sensitive porous hollow fiber membranes that use the phase transition of N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAM) to clean the membrane by temperature swing operation. The membranes were prepared using plasma-graft polymerization, and showed a thermo-sensitivity that was dependent on the grafting conditions. The filtering performance of the membranes was decreased with external fouling (cake formation) and internal fouling (adsorption of proteins), however it was effectively recovered by alternating the operating temperature above and below the NIPAM lower critical solution temperature (LCST). Therefore the fouled membranes could be cleaned with pure water (without the need for additional cleaning reagents) in this filtering - cleaning system.
