The impact of additives and dope composition on hollow fiber ultrafiltration membrane for pure water permeability

Abstract In the current work, a dry-jet wet spinning process was used for preparing the polysulfone (PS) polymer hollow fiber ultrafiltration membrane. The polysulfone (PS) polymer was prepared by phase inversion technique with two distinct additives: glycerol and polyethylene glycol (PEG). The HF membranes were characterized and their performance was compared for pure water permeability (PWP). While characterizing, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis on the internal section and cross-sectional area of membranes exhibited thin finger-like structures and thick sponge-like structures, respectively. With aid of an atomic force microscopic (AFM), the average surface roughness (Ra) of extruded HF membranes was found to be 61.253 nm and 81.086 nm, respectively for the membranes prepared using glycerol and PEG as additives Wettability studies revealed that the both membranes were hydrophilic. Further, they subjected to ascertained for the average pore size, surface porosity, stretch length, and breakage load. In addition, an investigation through X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis exhibited that the acquired fibers were amorphous. The results of these findings showed that an increase in pressure caused a rise in water flow. Though PEG-supported HF membrane was an additive that has been shown to provide a greater water flux than glycerol additive HF, its structural stability suggests that it might be employed for higher pressure applications to satisfy the necessary demand for water processing.