Morphology and performance of polyvinyl chloride membrane modified with Pluronic F127

Abstract

Attempts to modify the morphology of membrane for application in industrial separation are being undertaken by many researchers. The present study discusses the morphological modification of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) membrane by combining the hydrophilic surfactant Pluronic F127 (PF127) in a polymer solution to improve the performance of the membrane. The membrane is formed using the non-solvent induced-phase separation (NIPS) method. PF127 is added to the membrane solution as a membrane modifying agent. The effects of the surfactant concentration in the dope solution on the permeability of pure water, solute rejection, hydrophilic characteristics, and membrane morphology are investigated. Higher concentrations of PF127 had a significant effect on the permeability of pure water. The highest membrane permeation was 45.65 l/m .hr.atm with the addition of 7% PF127 additive. PF127 is successfully proposed as a membrane pore-forming agent in this work; the blending of this additive in appropriate amounts in the polymer solution is adequate to improve the performance of the PVC membrane.

Development of Polyvinylidene Fluoride Membrane by Incorporating Bio-Based Ginger Extract as Additive

“…The change of the membrane structure had a strong correlation with the thermodynamic and kinetic aspects between polymer solution and coagulation bath [ 24 , 25 ]. The formation of macrovoids was induced by the quicker exchange of solvent and nonsolvent during the phase inversion due to the presence of hydrophilic ginger [ 1 , 26 ]. The instantaneous demixing resulted in the formation of a sponge-like structure/morphology, which promotes porosity [ 27 , 28 ], as well as filtration performance, as discussed in Section 3.4 .…”

“…Fouling in membrane filtration can occur due to the attachment or adsorption of foulant (organic/inorganic materials) contained in feed solution on the top of the membrane surface and within the membrane pores [ 1 ]. The membrane fouling phenomena is strongly affected by the interactions between foulant and membrane materials, typically through surface hydrophobic–hydrophobic interaction.…”