• Membrane Journal
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.76-85
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• 2016

Fabrication of polysulfone (PSf) hollow fiber membranes was investigated for the separation of $N_2/NF_3$ gas mixtures, which are emitted from the display and the semiconductor industries. A combination of the non-solvent induced phase separation (NIPS) and the vapor-induced phase separation (VIPS) technique was applied to develop high flux hollow fiber membranes. Thin polymer layers were further coated onto the surface of the hollow fiber membranes by using polydimethylsiloxiane (PDMS) or Teflon AF1600(R), which contributes to improve the $N_2/NF_3$ selectivity. The $N_2/NF_3$ separation performances of our PSf hollow fiber membranes were determined by the intrinsic properties of coating materials. Especially, the PSf hollow fiber membrane coated with Teflon AF 1600(R) exhibited a higher $N_2/NF_3$ selectivity (> 14) with a slightly lower $N_2$ permeance (4.5 GPU), as compared to the commercial PSf counterparts. This feature provides a good potential as a membrane structure to separate $N_2/NF_3$.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.281-290
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• 2016

Thin film composite (TFC) polyamide membranes were prepared on polysulfone (PSF) supports for forward osmosis (FO) applications. To understand the influence of polarity and porosity of support layer on the formation of polyamide structure and the final FO performance, clathochelate metal complex (MC) contained PSF supports were prepared via the phase inversion process from various PSF casting solutions containing 0.1-0.5 wt% of MC in dimethyl formamide (DMF) solvent (18 wt%). A crosslinked aromatic polyamide layer was then fabricated on top of each support to form a TFC membrane. For the porous PSF supports prepared with relatively low concentration casting solutions (12 wt%), the PET film was removed after phase inversion and crosslinked aromatic polyamide layer was then fabricated. The tested sample from PSF (18 wt%)/MC (0.5 wt%) casting solution presented outstanding FO performance, almost similar water flux (9.99 LMH) with lower reverse salt flux (RSF, 0.77 GMH) compared to commercial HTI FO membrane(10.97 LMH of flux and 2.2 GMH of RSF). By addition of MC in casting solution, the thickness of the active layer in FO membranes was reduced, however, the increased RSF value was obtained.

• Proceedings of the Membrane Society of Korea Conference
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• 1998.06a
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• pp.135-153
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• 1998

Nanofiltration (NF) is a recently introduced term in membrane separation. In 1988, Eriksson was one of the first authors using the word 'nanofiltration' explicitly. Some years before, FilmTech started to use this term for their NF50 membrane which was supposed to be a very loose reverse osmosis membrane or a very tight ultrafiltration membrane. Since then, this term has been introduced to indicate a specific boundary of membrane technology in between ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis. The application fields of the NF membranes are very broad as follows: Demeneralizing water, Cleaning up contaminated groundwater, Ultrapure water production, Treatment of effleunts containing heavy metals, Offshore oil platforms, Yeast production, Pulp and paper mills, Textile production, Electroless copper plating, Cheese whey production, Cyclodextrin production, Lactose production. The earliest NF membrane was made by Cadotte et al, using piperazine and trimesoyl chloride as monomers for the formation of polyamide active layer of the composite type membrane. They coated very thin interfacially potymerized polyamide on the surface of the microporous polysulfone supports. The NF membrane exhibited low rejections for monovalent anions (chloride) and high rejections for bivalent anions (sulphate). This membrane was called NS300. Some of the earliest NF membranes, like the NF40 membrane of FilmTech, the NTR7250 of Nitto-Denko and the UTC20 and UTC60 of Toray, are formed by a comparable synthesis route as the NS300 membrane. Commercially available NF membranes nowadays are as follows: ASP35 (Advanced Membrane Technology), MPF21; MPF32 (Kiryat Weizmann), UTC20; UTC60; UTC70; UTC90 (Toray), CTA-LP; TFCS (Fluid Systems), NF45; NF70 (FilmTec), BQ01; MX07; HG01; HG19; SX01; SX10 (Osmonics), 8040-LSY-PVDI (Hydranautics), NF CA30; NF PES 10 (Hoechst), WFN0505 (Stork Friesland). The typical ones among the commercially available NF membranes are polyamide composite membrane consisting of interfacially polymerized polyamide active layer and microporous support. While showing high water fluxes and high rejections of multivalent ions and small organic molecules, these membranes have relatively low chemical stability. These membranes have low chlorine tolerance and are unstable in acid or base solution. This chemical instability is appearing to be a big obstacle for their applications. To improve the chemical stability, we have tried, in this study, to prepare chemically stable NF membranes from PVA. The ionomers and interfacially polymerized polyamide were used for the modification of'the PVA membranes. For the detail study of the active layer, homogeneous NF membranes made only from active layer materials were prepared and for the high performance, composite type NF membranes were prepared by coating the active layer materials on microporous polysulfone supports.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.348-354
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• 2019

Recently, the application range of organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN) technology has been expanding, requiring membranes with better performance. In this work, thin film composite (TFC) OSN membrane was fabricated. First, ultrafiltration support membrane was prepared via nonsolvent-induced phase separation (NIPS) technique using polysulfone (PSf) and polyethersulfone (PES). Then, the effect of pore forming additives such as polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) and pluronic F-127 were employed to improve the membrane permeance. The well-known interfacial polymerization technique was employed using MPD-TMC chemistry to form a thin film on top of the fabricated support, and its solvent permeance and nanofiltration performance was characterized. It was found that polyethersulfone support exhibited more reliable performance compared to polysulfone, and PVP additive was more effective compared to Pluronic F-127. As for the oSN performance, polar aprotic solvents like acetonitrile show significantly higher flux (986.5 L·m^-2·h^-1·bar^-1) compared to water and EtOH (9.5 L·m^-2·h^-1·bar^-1).

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.604-608
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• 2006

Polymer composites for measuring the radioactive contamination are prepared by coating ZnS(Ag) powders as a scintillator on polysulfone base layer. The composites consist of the active layer for a scintillation reaction with radioactive wastes and the transparent support layer for transmittance of light photons emitted by scintillation in the active layer. The binding of the active layer, including ZnS(Ag), on the support layer is proceeded via coating with polysulfone as a binder, without any extra adhesive. The coating was obtained by either casting via a Doctor Blade as applicator or screen printing. The prepared composites feature a monolithic structure, resulting in the complete adhesion between two layers. The composite prepared by the casting technique using an applicator holds a good detection efficiency in measuring the alpha radionuclide, but its structure becomes fragile because of warping in morphology. On the contrary, the composite prepared by the screen printing shows a good detection capacity as well as a good stability in a mechanical shape.

• Clean Technology
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.151-165
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• 2002

In the treatment of the wastewater containing metals($Cu^{2+}$, $Zn^{2+}$, $Ni^{2+}$, $Cr^{3+}$) by using batch precipitation and flocculation followed by membrane filtration, permeate flux and removal efficiency were investigated according to by the effect of pH and coagulants, and the type of membranes used and pore size. It was found that it is most effective to use $0.45{\mu}m$-polysulfone membrane and coagulant(PAC) at the conditions of the pH of 10.0~10.5 for the case of copper containing wastewater, $0.1{\mu}m$-PVDF membrane and coagulant(PAC) at the conditions of the pH of 10.0~10.5 for the case of zinc containing wastewater, $0.1{\mu}m$-PVDF membrane and coagulant at the conditions of the pH of 11.0~11.5 for the case of nickel containing wastewater, $0.2{\mu}m$ membrane and coagulant at the conditions of the pH of 8.0~8.5 for the case of chromic containing wastewater, and $0.2{\mu}m{\sim}0.45{\mu}m$ membrane and coagulant at the conditions of the pH of 11.0~11.5 for the case mixture wastewater. The permeate flux could higher as to be used coagulants except for the case of copper containing wastewater.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.53 no.3
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• pp.295-301
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• 2015

A theoretical analysis was carried out to examine the concentration behavior of methane from a biogas using a polysulfone membrane. After the governing equations were derived for the cocurrent flow mode in a membrane module, the coupled nonlinear differential equations were numerically solved with the Compaq Visual Fortran 6.6 software. At the typical operating condition of mole fraction of 0.7 in a feed stream, the mole fraction of methane in the retentate increased to 0.76 while the normalized retentate flow rate to the feed flow rate decreased from 1 to 0.79. When either the mole fraction of methane in a feed increased or the pressure of the feed stream increased, the methane mole fraction in the retentate increased. On the other hand, it was found that as either the membrane area decreased or the ratio of the permeate pressure to the feed pressure increased, the methane mole fraction in the retentate decreased. In case that the stage cut increased, the methane mole fraction in the retentate increased while the recovery of methane slightly decreased.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.377-388
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• 2011

Flat sheet microfiltration membranes were prepared with polysulfone (PSF), polyethersulfone (PES), and polyphenylsulfone (PPS) by an immersion precipitation phase inversion method. In this method, dimethyl formamide (DMF) and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) were used as a solvent and a wetting polymer additive, respectively. 2-butoxyethanol (BE) was used as a nonsolvent additive catalyst to form pore. The morphology of membranes was investigated by scanning electron microscopy and micropermporometer. The permeability of the membranes was evaluated with the flux of pure water. When the BE was added, the pore size of membranes became larger than blank membranes. The changes in the morphology of membrane due to the BE addition depend on polymer structure. All membranes have similar mean pore size and porosity. The mean pore sizes of PSF, PES, and PPS membranes were 0.282, 0.330 $0.308{\mu}m$, respectively. The porosities of PSF, PES and PPS membranes were 68.5, 66.1, 66.4%, respectively. However, the PPS membrane showed higher pore density on surface and narrower pore size distribution than PSF or PES membrane does. As a result, the pure water flux of PPS membrane ($357L/m^2\;hr$) was higher than that of PSF ($196L/m^2\;hr$) or PES membrane ($214L/m^2\;hr$).

• Membrane Journal
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.391-400
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• 2016

In this work, novel thin film composite (TFC) forward osmosis (FO) membranes are developed via interfacial polymerization on the polysulfone (PS) substrate, using TEOS as the a sol-gel reagent to form hydrophilic interlayer polymer between PS and polyamide (PA). The PS substrate was cast on a very thin polyester nonwoven to reduce membrane resistance. With the incorporation of TEOS (tetraethoxy silane) polymer in the interface between PS and PA, the formed TFC FO membrane exhibits better hydrophilicity and improved water flux, and therefore superior membrane performance. By changing the polymerization sequence of PA interfacial polymerization and TEOS sol-gel condensation, the surface properties and performance of FO membranes are changed significantly. The permeability of FO membranes were estimated using the bench-scale FO test equipment. The distribution of the polysiloxane on composite membrane and morphology are also studied with FE-SEM and EDAX. The PS_PA_TEOS membrane showed highly enhanced water flux (79.2 LMH) but reverse salt flux (RSF) value (7.10 GMH) also increased. However, the flux of PS_TEOS_PA membrane increased moderately (54.1 LMH) without increasing RSF value (1.60 GMH) compare with PS_PA membrane.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.222-232
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• 2023

In this study, a hollow fiber support membrane was prepared by a non-solvent induced phase separation (NIPS) method using a polysulfone (PSf). The prepared hollow fiber support membrane was coated with PDMS and Pebax to prepare a hollow fiber composite membrane. The prepared composite membrane was measured for permeance and selectivity for pure CO₂, H₂, O₂ and N₂. Gas separation performance of the module having the highest selectivity (CO₂/H₂) among the prepared composite membrane modules was measured according to the change in stage cut using simulated gas. The composition of the simulated gas used at this time was 70% CO₂ and 30% H₂. In the 1 stage experiment, it was possible to obtain values of about 60% of H₂ concentration and 12% of H₂ recovery. In order to overcome the low H₂ concentration and recovery, 2 stage serial test was performed, and through this, it was possible to achieve 70% H₂ concentration and 70% recovery. Through this, it was possible to derive a separation process configuration for CO₂/H₂ separation.