I'm looking to find a gas permeable membrane or tubing that can pass alkenes ( specifically isobutylene) through. For context sake this will be used in a continuous cell culture. If anyone has suggestions from previous experiences or knows of a good place to start, please give me a hand. Thanks!

Wow, very specific question.

 

I did a quick scan of scientific literature, searching for [isobutylene membrane], but got nothing. That might mean it doesn't exist, or it means that it's being developed in companies/industry rather than academic laboratories.

 

As far as I know, membranes are still not really off-the-shelf things, especially when it comes to larger molecules. My suggestion is that you hit the literature (journals, not books) yourself, and see how close you can get to what you want. Obviously, you should search google too, but I assume that you already did that. If you find a paper that is relevant, contact the author of such a paper directly.

 

Unless you get lucky and find what you want, this sounds like it's gonna take some time.

Edited March 25, 201114 yr by CaptainPanic

In addition to CaptainPanic's suggestions you could also try searching expired patents on google patent search.

A bit of steel mesh will meet the requirement of passing isobutylene.

What do you want it to hold back?

Anyway, I'd try a membrane made form polyisobutylene since it should be easy to get and rubbery materials are often gas permeable, (though butyl rubber is less permeable than many).

As far as I know there are multiple gas permeable membranes and tubings, but the main problem with this, especially in a bioreactor, is control of your gas release. Isobutylene has an LEL ( Lower Explosive Limit) of only 3%, so the membrane cannot be too permeable, but rather just enough to meet the requirements of the cells for growth.