THE EFFECT OF POLYSULFONE (PSf) AND CELLULOSE ACETATE (CA) COMPOSITION ON THE CHARACTERISTICS OF PSf-CA MEMBRANE

• Main Author: (NIM: 20513028), YASSAROH
• Format: Theses
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/24765
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

Polysulfone (PSf) membrane has a good mechanical strength but its high hydrophobicity of PSf membrane results in low flux. On the other hand, cellulose acetate (CA) membrane has high hidrophilicity but low mechanical strength. This study aims to increase the hidrophilicity and mechanical strength of membrane by blending polysulfone and cellulose acetate. The blending of polysulfone and cellulose acetate with the addition of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG400) in N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) was prepared by immersion precipitation of phase inversion technique. The concentration of polymer was 18 % 𝑤𝑤 , while the PEG400 and NMP were 18 % 𝑤𝑤 and 64% 𝑤𝑤 , respectively. It was found that membranes composed of 50% and 75% of CA were very brittle . Therefore, the determination of optimum condition of PSf-CA membrane was limited to 0-25% and 90-100% of CA. The characterizations of membrane involved the measurement of water flux, % rejection, contact angle, mechanical strength and analysis of membrane morphology. The results showed that the higher the concentration of CA in membrane, the smaller the membrane contact angle, indicating the more hydrophilic the membranes. Hence, the water flux, the amount and dimension of pores increased but the rejection and mechanical strength decreased. The membrane morphology showed the presence of the asymmetric structure. It can be concluded that membrane composed of 10% CA in PSf/CA membrane showed the optimum characteristics, i.e. water flux is 104.36 ± 43.42 Lm-2h-1, rejection of 2000 kDa dextran solution is 79.73 ± 3.54% under a trans membrane pressure of 1.5 atm and tensile strength of the membrane is 7.41 ± 0.59 MPa.