Enhancement of Membrane Performance through Surface Hydrophilization of Hydrophobic Porous Flat-sheet Membranes

In order to enhance water permeability through the improvement of fouling phenomena and wettability of hydrophobic porous membranes, various adsorption materials, i.e., poly(vinyl amine), poly (styrene sulfonic acid), poly(vinyl sulfonic acid), and poly(acrylamide-co-acrylic acid) were adsorbed onto the surface of polyethylene (PE) porous membrane. The concentration of adsorption solutions, adsorption time, the sort of salts and their ionic strength were varied, and the pure water permeability of their resulting adsorbed membranes was measured. In general, water permeability increased with an initial increase in the concentration of adsorption solution, adsorption time, and ionic strength and then decreased with a further increase. The pure water permeability of 375 (LMH), 35% enhancement, was obtained at a condition of poly(vinyl sulfonic acid) 1000 ppm, ionic strength(IS) 0.1, and adsorption time 150 sec, while the 50% (411 LMH) and 35% (374 LMH) enhancements were obtained at conditions of poly(styrene sulfonic acid) 1000 ppm, adsorption time 60 sec, and NaCl IS 0.1 and 0.2, respectively.