EFFECT OF MOLECULAR WEIGHT AND CONCENTRATION OF PEG ON ULTRAFILTRATION MEMBRANE MORPHOLOGY STRUCTURE

MERCEDES L. MENDEZ; VERONICA RAJAL; ELZA F. CASTRO VIDAURRE.; LAURA PALACIO MARTINEZ; JOSÉ IGNACIO CALVO; ANTONIO HERNANDEZ

Amsterdam

Congreso; International Congress on membrane and Membrane Processes; 2011

Membrane Technology Group of the University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands

Asymmetric UF membranes synthesized from the phase inversion method are affected by many factors, which could result in significant changes, especially on selectivity and permeability of the resulting filters. Among those factors there could be included: polymer, solvent, non solvent, additives and synthesis conditions. In the present work, polyethersulfone (PES) membranes were prepared using polyethylene glycol (PEG) as additive, with several values of Molecular weight (400, 1000 and 10.000 Da) and concentration (12, 15 y 20 wt %), being  dimethylacetamide (DMAc) the solvent. The objective was to determine how the additive used affects the membrane morphology comparing results with similar polymeric systems. During the synthesis process the non-solvent used was a water bath. Membranes were characterized using contact angle to determine the effect of additive on the surface hydrophilicity. Also SEM images have been used to know the membrane morphology and Liquid-liquid Displacement Porosimetry (LLDP) was used to quantify the pore size distributions,