Development of Asymmetric Low Pressure Reverse Osmosis-Surfactants Membrane: Effect of Surfactant Types and Concentration

Nor Azirah Sulaiman,Al Dabbaas Khuzama Mansoor A,Muhammad Hafiz Md Saad,Nurul Hannan Mohd Safari,Sabariah Rozali,Abdul Rahman Hassan,Che Wan Insyirah Che Wan Takwa

doi:10.3311/ppch.13327

Nor Azirah Sulaiman, Al Dabbaas Khuzama Mansoor A + Show 5 more

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https://doi.org/10.3311/ppch.13327

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Abstract

The effect of surfactants that are cationic (Cetyl trimethylammonium bromide (CTAB)), anionic (Sodium Dodecyl Sulphate (SDS)) and non-ionic (Triton X-100) on performance, morphologies and molecular orientation of Polysulfone (PSF) low pressure reverse osmosis (LPRO) membrane were addressed. The experimental data showed that the increasing of 0.5 wt% in surfactant concentration produced higher pure water permeation (PWP) and flux. At 2.5 wt% of SDS, the LPRO membranes achieved the highest PWP of about 64.42 L/m2 × h while 3.0 wt% of CTAB demonstrated the highest flux of 55.28 L/m2 × h. Analysis from morphological results foundthat the optimal performance at 89.6 % rejection was produced by the membrane with 2 wt% SDS which is a good promoter for the fine morphological structures of the membrane, thus producing fine spectrum of molecular orientation factor.

Highlights

Asymmetric membranes are used for ultrafiltration, gas separation and reverse osmosis processes because of their high selectivity, permeability and mechanical strength in high pressure application
The first set of data demonstrated the effect of surfactants on the performance while the second and third discussed of the morphologies and molecular orientations
3.1 Effect of surfactants on performance of low pressure reverse osmosis (LPRO) membranes 3.1.1 Cationic surfactant cetyl trimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) was selected for studying the effect of cationic surfactant on the performance of LPRO membranes

Summary

Introduction

Asymmetric membranes are used for ultrafiltration, gas separation and reverse osmosis processes because of their high selectivity, permeability and mechanical strength in high pressure application. In the formation process, two or more components involved the conversion of homogenous polymer solution to a two-phase system (the solid polymer rich phase and the liquid polymer poor phase) [2]. The succeeding solidification process of the phase separated solution give a porous and asymmetric structure [3]. Polymer material of polysulfone (PSF) had been used to produce low pressure reverse osmosis (LPRO) surfactant membrane. PSF is a polymer widely used as a material for liquid separation processes as it has excellent characteristics which include good solubility in solvents, high thermal resistances, high mechanical resistances of the films, and improve water stability [4,5,6]

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