Characterization of Surface Modified Polysulfone Membranes with Various Fluorine Chemicals

The surface of polysulfone membranes has been modified using the fluorine chemicals, ITFE (2-iodo-1,1,1-trifluoro-ethane F.W.=209.94) and PFPI (1H,1H-pentafluoro-n-propyl iodide F.W.=259.95), and PFI (1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorohexyl iodide, F.W.=373.99) based on Friedel-Crafts reaction mechanism with varying reaction temperatures, reaction time, and catalysis types. The resulting membranes were characterized through mainly the contact angle measurement and pure water permeability. The smaller reactant shows the larger contact angles. FeBr$_3$ catalyst is more effective than AlCl$_3$. Typically, the PS film treated with ITFE at $25^{\circ}C$ under FeBr$_3$ catalyst showed the contact angle 78.5$^{\circ}C$ which indicated 10% over the value of unreacted PS films. More than 50% of pure water flux 8.0 g/$m^2$hr, reduced at reaction time 10 min relative to the original flux, 3.49 g/$m^2$hr.