The study reports the application of supercritical solvent impregnation to deliver antibacterial substance thymol to the defined polymeric structure of commercial polyamide microfiltration membranes. The process performed at a temperature of 40 °C and pressures of 10, 15, and 20 MPa was characterized by the fast impregnation in the first 30 min with thymol loadings up to 29 wt%. The maximal achieved thymol loading in the process was around 42 wt%, regardless the pressure. The scanning electron and ion microscopy analyses revealed that the membranes’ microstructure was preserved with a thymol content of 20 wt%, while a more prominent swelling effect was observed in samples with 35 wt% of thymol. The cross-flow filtration tests showed that the impregnation process did not harm the membranes’ functionality in samples with 20 wt% of thymol. These membranes exhibited strong anti-biofilm activity, and were less prone to the blockage with bacteria in comparison to neat membranes.

该研究报告了超临界溶剂浸渍在将抗菌物质百里酚递送到商业聚酰胺微滤膜确定的聚合物结构中的应用。在40°C的温度和10、15和20 MPa的压力下进行的过程的特点是在开始的30分钟内快速浸渍，百里酚的负载量高达29 wt％。不管压力如何，在该过程中获得的最大百里酚负载量约为42 wt％。扫描电子和离子显微镜分析表明，膜的微观结构被保留，百里酚含量为20 wt％，而在百里酚含量为35 wt％的样品中观察到了更明显的溶胀效果。错流过滤测试表明，在百里香酚含量为20 wt％的情况下，浸渍过程不会损害膜的功能。