Preparation and characterization of microfiltration membrane by utilization non-solvent induced phase separation technique

The Non-solvent induced phase separation (NIPS) method is often performed for manufacturing flat sheet polymeric membranes. Several studies have shown how effective the NIPS. approach is in creating microfiltration membranes. Because of its unique technical properties, polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) is frequently employed in microfiltration membranes. One issue that must be solved is improving the PVDF membrane’s performance, and the usual approach is to add a polymeric addition to the PVDF solution. The resulting PVDF membrane's porosity, hydrophilicity, and filtering ability may all be enhanced by adding polyethylene glycol (PEG) to the PVDF solution. This study aims to examine the impact of a PVDF polymer blending ratio with PEG additive on the filtration ability of the manufactured membrane by using NIPS production. The impact of varied PEG ratios employed in the PVDF membrane polymer mixture during synthesis as well as the morphology, hydrophilicity, and permeability of the produced membrane is subsequently studied. Results indicated that increasing additives concentration enhanced the viscosity, which might prevent the microvoid formation and reduce the pore size and the membrane permeability. According to the findings, the maximum flux was obtained when the polymer ratio was 10%, and the additive was 5 wt % as 383.80 L/m2h. Although the membrane produced with this composition has a maximum contact angle of 61.6 ° compared to other membranes, it is also one of the thinnest. Because of the complicated interplay between membrane thickness, contact angle, and flux, this ratio in which the most optimum flux was attained