Performance of microwave synthesized dual solvent dope solution and lithium bromide adiitives on poly (ethersulfone) membranes

BACKGROUND: Generally the fabrication of polymeric membranes is a complicated and expensive process since it involves several steps. The preliminary preparation steps involve polymer drying and dissolution and is very time consuming and expensive. Currently, conventional electrothermal heating (CEH) is used to dissolve polyethersulfone in an aprotic solvent for membrane fabrication. Usually CEH requires 6 to 8 h at temperatures of 80 to 95 °C. This paper reports the fabrication and characterization of polyethersulfone (PES) asymmetric ultrafiltration membrane made from microwave (MW) synthesis casting solution consisting of various compositions of double solvents and lithium bromide (LiBr) additive. RESULTS: Homogeneous dual solvent dope solutions prepared via microware irradiation took only 1 h instead of the 7 h when prepared using CEH. The results also revealed that the membrane permeation and rejection rates, pore size and porosity were dependent on the ratio of LiBr to acetone. Membranes with LiBr kept at 2 and 3 wt% exhibited both high rejection and permeation rates with minimum pore sizes of 1.067 and 1.214 nm respectively. The presence of LiBr and the occurrence of chain scission were elucidated using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy while its hydrophilic property was confirmed by water absorption and contact angle measurements. CONCLUSIONS: It was concluded that the microwave technique is capable of producing 1 L membrane solutions in less than 1 h. The membranes prepared from the microwave solutions show good rejection and permeation rates. Copyright © 2011 Society of Chemical Industry