Polysulfone Activated Carbon Composite Membranes

Abstract

The addition of a fourth component in the system composed by polymer/ solvent/ non-solvent is a technique generally employed to enhance membrane properties. Since polysulfone presents low hydrophilicity, which can hamper filtration performance, the addition of a hydrophilic material can be an important technique to improve this property. Therefore, the main purpose of this work is to understand the influence of addition of the activated carbon in the system polysulfone/ NMP/ water in terms of membrane morphology, hydrophilicity, thermal and mechanical resistance. From scanning electron micrographs, it could be seen that membrane surface became denser with the addition of higher activated carbon contents and the cross-section morphology was not changed. Acid-base interactions were favored with the activated carbon addition and the availability of Lifshtiz-van Der Waals interactions was decreased, being these two properties very important to avoid fouling formation onto membrane surface. The glass transition temperatures of the polysulfone composite membranes with higher activated carbon contents were increased. However, all activated carbon contents brittled the composite membranes in relation to the pristine polysulfone membrane.