Polysulfone based Ultrafiltration Membrane Preparation by Phase Inversion: Parameter Optimization

Polysulfone based ultrafiltration (UF) membranes are contemplated to be one of the most important separation material with large benefits of hydrolytic stability, chemical resistance, high strength, creep resistance etc. Due to these benefits it can be applied in diversified applications of gas separation, food and beverage processing, electro paint recovery, etc. PSF membranes are applicable in wide range of filtration spectra from microfiltration (MF) to reverse osmosis (RO). Optimization of membrane porosity and pore size are very difficult due to unstable solutions. Hence optimization of PSF membrane formation based upon effect of affecting parameters during phase inversion based membrane preparation is done. The concentration of dope solution, solvent of preparation of dope solution and other operating parameters such as humidity, temperature, pressure, etc. strongly affect membrane properties. The decreasing trend of concentration of doped solution is witnessed with the increase in the water flux. Additionally, the parabolic relation between the temperature and water flux through the membrane is noted to the extent of 60C where is starts shrinking. A linear increase in bubble point with increase in concentration of dope solution used for preparation of membranes shows that membrane pore size and porosity reduces with increasing solution concentrations. The study shows various parameters affecting PSF based UF membrane preparation parameters, with wide range of separation applications with distinctive features.