Studies on Performance of Cellulose Acetate and Poly(Ethelene Glycol) Blend Ultrafiltration Membranes Using Mixture Design Concept of Design of Experiments

Abstract

Cellulose acetate (CA) membranes have several advantages over other membranes due to their moderate flux, high salt rejection properties, renewable source of raw material, etc. Membrane compositions containing different concentrations of CA, polyethylene glycol (PEG 600) as additive and N,N–dimethyl formamide (DMF) as solvent have been prepared using phase inversion technique based on the mixture design concept of design of experiments. The prepared membranes have been characterized for permeate flux, membrane hydraulic resistance, and separation of proteins such as pepsin, egg albumin (EA), and bovine serum albumin (BSA). Using statistical techniques, the experimental data have been analyzed and a suitable model was suggested for predicting the optimal level of response as a function of the input variable. The influence of variation of the CA, DMF, and PEG 600 on the asymmetric membrane properties has also been reported.