Effect of pH on Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) Solution to Polysulfone-based Membrane

Abstract

In this work, polysulfone (PSf) flat sheet membrane was prepared via phase inversion technique. The effects of polyethylene glycol (PEG) additive on membrane performance were observed and investigated. The membrane permeation was evaluated in terms of pure water flux (PWF) and solute rejection at different pHs (pH 3, pH 5, pH 7 and pH 9). Bovine serum albumin (BSA) solution was used to study the performance of the prepared membrane. Results showed that the increase of PEG concentration led to higher PWF. This is due to PEG role as a pore forming agent in casting solution. The PWF was found to increase up to 101.85 LMH at 5% PEG. However, the PWF decrease when the PEG concentration is increased up to 7% and 9%. Similarly, flux rate at different pH showed the same plot as PWF. At pH 9, the PWF is high compared to pH 3, pH 5 and pH 7. The BSA rejection data at pH 3 and pH 5 shows the high rejection compared to pH 7 and pH 9. No significant changes were observed when PEG concentration was increased. As a conclusion, the addition of PEG has improved the performance of membrane in terms of PWF at a certain percentage (with the highest was given at 5%) of PSf membrane. It is also evidenced that the % of BSA rejection increased with decreasing pH.