Patent ID: 7815859

Claim:
An apparatus for measuring the oxygen gas permeability of a polymer membrane, the apparatus comprising: (a) an oxygen-donating enclosure, where the oxygen-donating enclosure is designed to hold a first gas-enriched liquid, and where the first gas-enriched liquid has a first oxygen gas concentration; (b) an oxygen-receiving enclosure operatively coupled to the oxygen-donating enclosure, where the oxygen-receiving chamber is designed to hold a second gas-enriched liquid, and where the second gas-enriched liquid has a second oxygen gas concentration, the second oxygen gas concentration being at least about 5.0 mg/L less than the first oxygen gas concentration; (c) a polymer membrane holding means designed to hold and receive a polymer, where the polymer membrane holding means is in both fluid communication and direct contact with both the oxygen-receiving enclosure and the oxygen-donating enclosure, where the polymer membrane holding is being designed to prevent liquid mixing of the first and second gas-enriched liquids when a polymer membrane is present in the polymer membrane holding means; (d) a sensor means, where the sensor means is located in and monitors the oxygen level present in the oxygen-receiving enclosure; (e) a means for determining/measuring the oxygen gas transport across the polymer membrane using data from (d) and generating oxygen gas transport data therefrom; and (f) a means for determining the oxygen gas permeability of the polymer membrane, where the means for determining the oxygen gas permeability of the polymer membrane involves using the oxygen gas transport data from (e) to determine the oxygen permeability of the polymer membrane.