Characteristic and performance of polysulphone-polyethylene glycol synthetic hybrid membrane in water purification system

Abstract

In the fast-changing modern world, fabrication of membrane is one of the rising technologies. Although membrane fabrication is mostly used in the separation process, most people are still unaware of the capabilities of the membrane sheet could give a strong impact on the finishing product outcome. Membrane fouling where the accumulation of particles in the pores and surfaces of the hybrid membrane one of the major highlights in membrane fabrication process. This research is mainly focused on identifying the optimum formulation of hybrid polymer membrane fabrications. This study also to investigate the characteristic, morphology and performance of the optimum hybrid polymer membrane. Fabrications of Flat sheet asymmetric polymeric synthetic hybrid membrane with the combinations of Polysulfone (PSF), Polyethylene Glycol (PEG) and 1-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMD) as the solvent has been conducted with five (5) different formulations. In order to test the characteristics of the synthetic hybrid membranes from membrane sheet for five (5) different formulation have undergone Tensile Strength Test, Permeate Flux Test, NaCl Rejection Test and Fourier-Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopy. The optimum performance of the synthetic hybrid membrane 3 (M3) has been obtained. Membrane (M3) was further analyzed with Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) to determine its morphology.The hybrid membrane (M3) was tested in a wastewater filtration system to determine the performance of the particles removal capabilities. The produced formulation membrane (M3) has created a Microporous membrane in 0.35 -0.37 μm pore size, which was suitable to filter out particles in the wastewater.