Preparation, Characterization, and Performance Evaluation of Polysulfone Hollow Fiber Membrane with PEBAX or PDMS Coating for Oxygen Enhancement Process.

Kok Chong,Ahmad Ismail,Hui Thiam,Woei Lau,Rosyiela Roslan,Soon Lai

doi:10.3390/polym10020126

Kok Chong, Ahmad Ismail + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/polym10020126

Copy DOI

Abstract

Air pollution is a widely discussed topic amongst the academic and industrial spheres as it can bring adverse effects to human health and economic loss. As humans spend most of their time at the office and at home, good indoor air quality with enriched oxygen concentration is particularly important. In this study, polysulfone (PSF) hollow fiber membranes fabricated by dry-jet wet phase inversion method were coated by a layer of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) or poly(ether block amide) (PEBAX) at different concentrations and used to evaluate their performance in gas separation for oxygen enrichment. The surface-coated membranes were characterized using SEM and EDX to determine the coating layer thickness and surface chemical properties, respectively. Results from the gas permeation study revealed that the PSF membrane coated with PDMS offered higher permeance and selectivity compared to the membrane coated with PEBAX. The best performing PDMS-coated membrane demonstrated oxygen and nitrogen gas permeance of 18.31 and 4.01 GPU, respectively with oxygen/nitrogen selectivity of 4.56. Meanwhile, the PEBAX-coated membrane only showed 12.23 and 3.11 GPU for oxygen and nitrogen gas, respectively with a selectivity of 3.94. It can be concluded the PDMS coating is more promising for PSF hollow fiber membrane compared to the PEBAX coating for the oxygen enrichment process.

Highlights

Air pollution is a serious environmental issue that is widely discussed around the globe, especially in the developing countries
The surface properties of the PSF hollow fiber membranes were modified by subjecting the membranes to dip-coating process using either PDMS or PEBAX at different concentrations
Results showed that the membranes coated with PDMS exhibited better permeance and selectivity in oxygen/nitrogen separation process in comparison to the membranes coated with PEBAX

Summary

Introduction

Air pollution is a serious environmental issue that is widely discussed around the globe, especially in the developing countries. The article published by the Lancet Respiratory Medicine in 2012 reported that 12.6 million deaths recorded worldwide were related to environmental pollution and, out of that number, 8.2 million were caused by air pollution [1]. A poor level of indoor air quality is likely to cause sick building syndrome that affects both productivity and personal health. One of the effective ways to improve indoor air quality is to supply oxygen-enriched air to enhance air freshness [2]. Oxygen-enriched air is highly sought after in medical applications for hypoxemic patients and internal combustion engines to reduce the environment pollution that arises from unburned hydrocarbons [3,4]

Methods

Results

Conclusion