	US 12,128,381 B1
	Microporous thin film
Junaid Saleem, Doha (QA); S K Safdar Hossain, Hofuf (SA); Zubair Khalid Baig Moghal, Doha (QA); and Gordon McKay, Doha (QA)
Assigned to KING FAISAL UNIVERSITY, Al-Ahsa (SA)
Filed by KING FAISAL UNIVERSITY, Al-Ahsa (SA)
Filed on Mar. 27, 2024, as Appl. No. 18/618,731.
Application 18/618,731 is a division of application No. 18/236,372, filed on Aug. 21, 2023, granted, now 11,958,035.
Int. Cl. B01J 20/26 (2006.01); B01J 20/28 (2006.01); B01J 20/30 (2006.01); C02F 101/32 (2006.01)

CPC B01J 20/261 (2013.01) [B01J 20/28004 (2013.01); B01J 20/28033 (2013.01); B01J 20/3021 (2013.01); B01J 20/3064 (2013.01); B01J 20/3071 (2013.01); C02F 2101/32 (2013.01)]

17 Claims

1. A microporous thin film prepared according to a process comprising:

collecting a plastic waste stream;

shredding plastic in the plastic waste stream into pieces, thereby obtaining shredded plastic;

rolling and mixing the shredded plastic in water to obtain a mixture;

separating polyolefins from other plastics in the mixture using a float-sink method to obtain separated polyolefins;

dissolving the separated polyolefins in an organic solvent to obtain a solution;

adding a cavity forming agent to the solution until the cavity forming agent is well-dispersed therein;

applying the solution onto a solid substrate through spin-coating to obtain a substrate coated with a thin film;

subjecting the thin film to heat thereby strengthening the thin film;

peeling the thin film off the substrate to obtain a peeled thin film; and

extracting the cavity forming agent from the peeled thin film by dissolving the peeled thin film in a suitable solvent, thereby obtaining a microporous thin film with macro-voids and cavities.