Technical Information

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What's the difference between hydrophobic and hydrophilic materials?

Hydrophilic porous materials wick water - just as a kitchen sponge or paper towel does. Hydrophobic porous materials do not wick water. Rather, they resist water entry into their pores. Polyethylene, polypropylene, PVDF and PTFE materials do not naturally wick water. They are considered hydrophobic in their natural state. However, POREX Porous Plastic and Oriented Fiber products can be made hydrophilic. Through proprietary, patented and patent pending material conditioning technologies, these materials can be custom designed to wick water and other fluids at different rates. The science behind a material's ability to wick or resist water entry is described in detail in Porex's Capillary Tutorial.

Click here to view Porex's Capillary Tutorial

Many of the raw materials used in the production of POREX Porous Plastic have been certified by the raw material suppliers as compliant with USP Class VI requirements, meeting FDA requirements in the Code of Federal Registration, 21 CFR 177.1520, for food contact, including cooking applications, and many components have been used in liquid filtration devices that carry NSF certification. In development projects requiring NSF approval, Porex will work in conjunction with the NSF to help usher an application through NSF certification process.

The technical information presented is intended as reference information only and in no way should be regarded as a limit or a constraint to our development capability. The material conditioning processes utilized by Porex to ready a polymer for use in the manufacturing process is considered proprietary. Therefore, Porex does not sell raw material for use in any external operation.

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