Thin film composite membrane with hybrid membrane as the barrier layer: Preparation and characterization

The use of hybrid membrane is becoming popular due to the improvement in the mechanical and thermal properties as compared to the membrane produced from pure organic or inorganic materials. The production of thin film composite by coating the surface of hydrophobic support membrane with hydrophilic membrane is one method to produce fouling free membrane and increasing the permeation flux particularly water. This paper describes the preparation and characterization of thin film composite membranes, which were prepared from polysulfone as the porous support and hybrid membrane as the barrier layer. The membranes were characterized by Fourier Transform Infra Red Spectroscopy (FTIR), Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and water contact angle analysis. The hybrid membrane was prepared from blended polymer of polyvinyl alcohol and polyethylene glycol with addition of glycerol as organic additive and with various concentration of tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS). The effects of different concentration of tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS) during hybrid membrane preparation as well as the incorporation of glycerol on the characteristics of the thin film composite membranes (TFC) were studied. Results showed that the enhancement of rigidity structure as a result of higher cross linking reaction from the incorporation of TEOS could be compensated with the plasticizing effect by glycerol. The finding obtained from this research will be applied for future work with regard to investigate the performance of the thin film composite membranes.