Investigation of the Pore Structure and Morphology of Cellulose Acetate Membranes Using Small-Angle Neutron Scattering (SANS). 2. Ultrafiltration and Reverse-Osmosis Membranes

Abstract

Pore structure in cellulose acetate ultrafiltration (UF) and reverse-osmosis (RO) membranes has been studied using small-angle neutron scattering. Scattering experiments were carried out on dry membranes as well as on membranes swollen with deuterated solvents (D[sub 2]O and CD[sub 3]OD). In addition, the RO membranes were studied both before and after annealing (a process of heating a membrane in a water bath at [approximately]75 C to improve its separation properties). The pore surface in UF membranes was found to be smooth and nonfractal, as evidenced by the fourth power law behavior at high Q. Values of average pore sizes obtained for dry and solvent swollen membranes agree well with pore sizes obtained by other methods. For cellulose acetate RO membranes in their dry state, the unannealed membrane appears to consist of two discrete pore size distributions in the intermediate and high Q region while the annealed membrane contains a much wider distribution of pore sizes. These results give a good account of the changes occurring in the structure of RO membranes as a result of annealing, and agree well with the prediction of other authors.