Fabrication and Characterization of Polysulfone Membranes Coated with Polydimethysiloxane for Oxygen Enrichment

Abstract

This paper presented the application of polymeric membranes for oxygen/nitrogen (O 2 /N 2 ) gas separation. Polysulfone (PSF) hollow fiber membranes were fabricated by phase inversion process using N,N-dimethylacetamide (DMAc) and tetrahydrofuran (THF) as co-solvent and ethanol as additive. The effects of bore fluid flow rate and polydimethysiloxane (PDMS) coating concentration on the separation characteristics of hollow fiber membranes were studied. Prior to gas permeation study, characterizations were performed to study the membrane morphology, its thickness and quality of PDMS coating layer on the membrane surface. It was found that the bore fluid flow rate played an important role for the O 2 /N 2 separation as it could alter the membrane structure and dimension. The membrane fabricated with lower bore fluid flowrate exhibited better gas permeance and selectivity, owing to better structural integrity that favored the PDMS coating. The results indicated that the PSF hollow fiber membrane coated with optimum PDMS concentration could show greater O 2 /N 2 gas permeability and selectivity relative to the PSF membrane without PDMS coating.

Preparation, Characterization, and Performance Evaluation of Polysulfone Hollow Fiber Membrane with PEBAX or PDMS Coating for Oxygen Enhancement Process

“… Schematic diagram of the dry-jet wet phase inversion apparatus setup for PSF hollow fiber membrane fabrication [ 2 ]. …”

“…A poor level of indoor air quality is likely to cause sick building syndrome that affects both productivity and personal health. One of the effective ways to improve indoor air quality is to supply oxygen-enriched air to enhance air freshness [2]. Additionally, oxygen-enriched air is highly sought after in medical applications for hypoxemic patients and internal combustion engines to reduce the environment pollution that arises from unburned hydrocarbons [3,4].…”

Preparation and Characterization of a Hydrophilic Polysulfone Membrane Using Graphene Oxide

“…However, at present, the operating costs of PSf membrane processes are still quite high because of fouling, limitations on filtering capacity, and longevity, which are due to their high hydrophobic properties [2-4, 6, 7]. Recently, the increase in hydrophilicity and the minimization of fouling of PSf membranes have been tested through a variety of solutions including modifying the surface [8,9], coating onto the membrane surface [10][11][12][13][14], and blending the hydrophilic materials into the membrane casting solution before fabricating the membrane [2,5,[15][16][17][18][19][20]. Among the aforementioned methods, the method of blending PSf with some hydrophilic polymers or inorganic nanoparticles to increase the surface hydrophilic and antifouling properties has proven remarkably effective [2,5,[20][21][22][23].…”

Highly Selective Oxygen/Nitrogen Separation Membrane Engineered Using a Porphyrin-Based Oxygen Carrier

“…Air separation is an essential process, in which the obtained oxygen-enriched air can be used to assist combustion by increasing the burning velocities [1], regenerate catalysts in the fluid catalytic cracking [2], and improve indoor air quality [3]; meanwhile, the obtained nitrogen-enriched air can be applied in keeping food fresh, preventing fires, oil recovery, and draining water [4,5]. Currently, cryogenic distillation is the commercial and mature technology for air separation, which can produce a large amount of high purity (>99%) oxygen and nitrogen.…”