Development red seaweed based (Gracilaria verrucosa Greville) polyurethane membrane

Abstract

The development of polyurethane membranes is very rapid, starting from the development of basic materials, applications, and membrane modifications. The natural material used for the development of polyurethane membranes is red seaweed from the Gracilaria verrucosa Greville species because this type of seaweed is still not optimal in its utilization, especially in the Aceh area. This study using three ingredients derived from red seaweed, namely, red seaweed biomass (RSB), red seaweed residue (RSR), and red seaweed filtrate (RSF). The polyurethane membrane was synthesized using the phase inversion method with glycerin and castor oil as a blasting agent. The polyurethane membranes have good physical properties with functional groups and the thermal characteristic are almost identical for the three materials. The polyurethane membrane from red seaweed biomass (PUM-RSB) has more urethane bonds than polyurethane membrane from red seaweed residue (PUM-RSR) and polyurethane membrane from red seaweed filtrate (PUM-RSF), which can be seen from the low % transmittance on functional group FTIR analysis. The performance of the membrane was evaluated by an ammonia filtration process with a dead-end flow system. Flux and rejection factors for PUM-RSB were obtained 0.939 mL/cm2.min.bar and 28.650%., respectively. This study indicates that all parts of red seaweed can be used as a base material to develop polyurethane membranes to produce optimal polyurethane membranes that can be applied to all conditions.