Modification of polyethersulfone hollow fiber membrane with different polymeric additives

The improvement of fouling resistance of porous polymeric membrane is one of the most important targets in membrane preparation for water purification in many process like wastewater treatment. Membranes can be modified by various techniques, including the treatment of polymer material, blending of hydrophilic polymer into polymer solution, and post treatment of fabricated membrane. This research proposed the modifications of morphology and surface property of hydrophobic membrane by blending polyethersulfone (PES) with three polymeric additives, polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), Pluronic F127 (Plu), and Tetronic 1307 (Tet). PES hollow fiber membranes were fabricated via dry-wet spinning process by using a spinneret with inner and outer diameter of 0.7 and 1.0 mm, respectively. The morphology changes of PES blend membrane by those additives, as well as the change of performance in ultrafiltration module were comparatively observed. The surface structure of membranes was characterized by atomic force microscopy and Fourier transform infra red spectroscopy. The cross section morphology of PES blend hollow fiber membranes was investigated by scanning electron microscopy. The results showed that all polymeric additives blended in this system affected to improve the performances of PES membrane. The ultra-filtration experiment confirmed that PES-PVP membrane showed the best performance among the three membranes on the basis of filtration stability.