Preparation and Characterization of Polysulfone Based Hollow Fibre Composite Membranes for Water Purification

Abstract

Nanofiltration membranes are gaining more importance in the field of water treatment especially in desalination plants. Hollow fibre membranes have been preferred over other membrane configurations due to their high membrane surface area to module volume, mechanical property and easy handling. In the present work, we prepared new type of polysulfone (PSf) composite hollow fibre membranes by blending PSf with polyvinylpyrrolidinone-nitrobenzene (PVPD) in different compositions. New membranes were fabricated using wet-jet phase inversion technique. The resultant composite membranes were characterized by various analytical techniques such as water contact angle, SEM, DSC, TG. Pure water flux of the membranes was measured using cross-flow filtration techniques. The study revealed that increased composition of PVPD in casting solution resulted in a highly porous membrane structure and the pure water flux of the membranes increases in the same order.