Synthesis and characterization of Polyvinyl Alcohol/Polyether Sulfone (PVA/PES) integrated membrane

Abstract

Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) membrane is usually involved in alcohol dehydration such as ethanol dehydration. Due to high hydrophilicity, PVA suffered from a high degree of swelling during the dehydration process, causing spoilage of membrane. Therefore, blending of a hydrophobic polymer into PVA polymer matrix can potentially reduce the swelling of PVA membrane in the dehydration process. There are several methods that can be use in blending PVA with hydrophobic polymer, which are direct mixing, dip coating, spin-dip coating and spray method. In this study, PVA is been direct mixing with polyether sulfone (PES) at the temperature 90ºC and been dry at 20-25 ºC. The ratio PVA: PES been mix in DMSO is 1:2, 1:3, 1:4, 1:5 and 1:7 respectively. The integrated PVA/PES membrane is been cross-linking with 5.0, 8.0 and 10.0 wt % of 0.2 M glutaraldehyde (GA) in the presence of 1 M of hydrochloric acid (HCl) for 4 hours. The sample is test for tensile strength and degree of swelling. The characterization of PVA/PES membrane is test using FT-IR for identify functional group in membrane. Ratio 3 with 1:4 of PVA: PES is the best ratio in the tensile strength. Cross-linking can increase tensile strength and reduce the degree of swelling the membrane.