Abstract
Polysulfone (PSF) membranes were successfully prepared by thermally induced phase separation (TIPS) using dipropylene glycol dibenzoate (DPGDB) as the diluent for the first time. Interestingly, the typically liquid-liquid (L-L) phase separation with coarsening process was not observed and the gelation occurred for the system during the cooling process. Moreover, the cross-section morphologies of all the membranes showed the network structure for the PSF concentration is in the range of 17wt%–21wt%. The membrane formation mechanism concerning the phase separation-gelation was proposed. The rejection of bovine serum albumin (BSA) of the membrane increased from 83.5% to 95.9% with the increase of PSF concentration. Additionally, the maximum break strength the membrane was as high as 7.3MPa. The present study may open a new method to fabricate PSF membrane and control membrane structure.
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