Blood oxygenators are used to saturate oxygen levels and remove carbon dioxide from the body during cardiopulmonary bypass. Although the natural lung is hydrophilic, commercially used oxygenator materials are hydrophobic. Surface hydrophobicity weakens blood compatibility, as long‐term contact with the blood environment may lead to different degrees of blood activity. Polysulfone may be considered an alternative hydrophilic material in the design of oxygenators. Therefore, it may be directed toward developing hydrophilic membranes. This study aims to investigate the feasibility of achieving blood gas transfer with a polysulfone‐based microporous hollow fiber membrane and compare it with the commercially available polypropylene membranes. Structural differences in the membrane morphology, surface hydrophilicity, tortuosity, mass transfer rate, and material properties under different operation conditions of temperature and flow rates are reported. The polysulfone membrane has a water contact angle of 81.3°, whereas a commercial polypropylene membrane is 94.5°. The mass transfer resistances (s/m) for the polysulfone and polypropylene membranes are calculated to be 4.8 × 10⁴ and 1.5 × 10⁴ at 25°C, respectively. The module made of polysulfone was placed in the cardiopulmonary bypass circuit in parallel with the commercial oxygenator, and pH, pO₂, pCO₂ levels, and metabolic activity were measured in blood samples.

The application of separation technology using ultrafiltration/nanofiltration membranes for protein purification and concentration has grown rapidly in the last decade. Innovations to synthesize membranes with properties and performance that suit the characteristics of the feed solution have been and will keep developing. This study aims to examine the strategies to improve the performance of the Polyvinylidene Fluoride (PVDF) membrane for lactalbumin protein isolation. The PVDF polymer membrane was modified by adding Poloxamer 188 (Po1) copolymer and a combination of two types of nanocarbons, i.e., single-walled carbon nanotubes (S-CnT) and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (M-CnT). The following membrane characteristics were examined: mechanical properties, morphological structure, porosity, elemental composition and functional groups, and surface hydrophilicity. The membrane’s filtration performance was analyzed in terms of its ability to pass water (flux) and concentrate lactalbumin protein. The results showed that the changes in the membrane morphological structure were clearly visible in the SEM test, which exposed more open membrane pores after adding Pol and S-CnT/M-CnT additives. The mechanical properties of the membrane also increased, as indicated by the increase in the tensile strength from 12.1 MPa to 16.07 MPa. In general, it was found that the composition of the PVDF/Pol/S-CnT/NMP polymer solutions resulted in better filtration performance compared to the membranes made of only the PVDF/NMP polymer solution.