TY  - GEN
T1  - The effect of membrane-solute-solute interactions on polysulfone/pluronic F127 blend ultrafiltration membranes
A1  - Rafeqah Raslan
LA  - English
PB  - School of Industrial Technology, Universiti Sains Malaysia
YR  - 2014
UL  - http://discoverylib.upm.edu.my/discovery/Record/oai:http:--agris.upm.edu.my:0-7502
AB  - Application of ultrafiltration membranes have been transformed from a laboratory scale to an industrial process. However, fouling of a membrane is the major problem that industry has to face. Efforts to overcome the fouling problems must be done in order to control the performance of the membrane. One of the techniques to suppress the
membrane fouling to produce low-fouling ultrafiltration membrane by polymer blends. Further, a detail investigation of fouling behaviour and mechanism must be performed. This paper describes detail information of fouling mechanism for blend ultrafiltration membranes with protein by studying the membrane-solute-solute interaction (ultrafiltration (UF)). Self-fabricated membranes made of polysulfone (P-0) and blended with anti-fouling agent, Pluronic FI27 (P-20) were used in this study. Gelatine was chosen as the model protein. In order to elucidate the membrane-solute-solute interactions, ultrafiltration experiments were conducted at constant trans-membrane pressure (2 bar)using gelatine solution (10 g/L). Evaluation of membrane performance was done by calculating the flux profile over time. The membranes before and after ultrafiltration were characterized by contact angle measurement and quantified by Attenuated Total Reflection Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (ATR-FTIR)The gelatine fouling was visualized by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results confirmed the gelatine deposits on the membrane. It is shown that blend membranes may provide excellent antifouling efficiency. On this basis, one method to develop a low-fouling ultrafiltration membrane has achieved.
KW  - Fouling
KW  - Gelatin
KW  - Ultrafiltration
KW  - Membranes
KW  - Scanning microscopy
ER  -