PSf flat sheet membrane was prepared via phase inversion technique with N-methyl-2-pyrroidone (NMP) as solvent. In this study polyethylene glycol (PEG) and polyvinylpyrollidone (PVP) were compared as additives at different composition (0.5 wt%, 1 wt%, 3 wt% and 5 wt%). The structure and morphology of the resulting membranes were observed by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and the membranes permeation were evaluated in terms of pure water flux (PWF) and solute rejection. Solution of bovine serum albumin (BSA) was used to study the performance of prepared membrane. The addition of the additives into the casting solution changed the structure of the resultant membranes, which was believed to be associated with the change the permeated of water. The results demonstrated that at the same additive content, PSf/PVP membranes had higher PWF at 0.5 wt% and and 5 wt% of additive while PSf/PEG at 1 wt% and 3 wt% of additive. The BSA rejection show no significant changes for PSf/PEG while PSf/PVP, BSA rejection decrease with increase the increasing the PVP. For PEG, additive from 0% to 5%, the PWF increased from 14.73 at to 101.85 LMH. While for PVP, the PWF increased from 21.13 to 177.61 LMH. The membrane morphology showed that all images showed the membranes were having asymmetric structure consisting of a dense top layer, a porous sublayer, and a small portion of sponge-like bottom layer. The top layer of the membrane consist of finger-like structure while at bottom layer has macrovoid structure. With increasing the additive, the finger-like structure become longer to the bottom and macrovoid become smaller. The study found that PEG gives the optimum performance based on the result of rejection and flux permeation.
In this work, polysulfone (PSf) flat sheet membrane was prepared via phase inversion technique. The effects of polyethylene glycol (PEG) additive on membrane performance were observed and investigated. The membrane permeation was evaluated in terms of pure water flux (PWF) and solute rejection at different pHs (pH 3, pH 5, pH 7 and pH 9). Bovine serum albumin (BSA) solution was used to study the performance of the prepared membrane. Results showed that the increase of PEG concentration led to higher PWF. This is due to PEG role as a pore forming agent in casting solution. The PWF was found to increase up to 101.85 LMH at 5% PEG. However, the PWF decrease when the PEG concentration is increased up to 7% and 9%. Similarly, flux rate at different pH showed the same plot as PWF. At pH 9, the PWF is high compared to pH 3, pH 5 and pH 7. The BSA rejection data at pH 3 and pH 5 shows the high rejection compared to pH 7 and pH 9. No significant changes were observed when PEG concentration was increased. As a conclusion, the addition of PEG has improved the performance of membrane in terms of PWF at a certain percentage (with the highest was given at 5%) of PSf membrane. It is also evidenced that the % of BSA rejection increased with decreasing pH.
In the present work, the effect of rice husk silica (RHS) on the performance of polysulfone (PSf) blended with polyethylene glycol (PEG) membranes were investigated. The hybrid ultrafiltration membranes were prepared by phase inversion technique. The membrane performance was analyzed by using pure water flux, humic acid for the rejection test and followed by the membrane characterization. Results showed that PEG increased membrane pure water flux to 621.212 LMH and rejection humic acid at and 98%. The analysis of SEM revealed that PEG obviously changed the microstructure of the membrane especially at the top and sub layer.
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