• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.257-275
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• 2016

The enantiomeric and racemic effects of tartaric acid (TA) on the properties of polysulfone (PSn) ultrafiltration membranes were studied in terms of morphology and hydrophilicity (HPCT) of membrane. Asymmetric membranes were prepared by direct blending of polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) with D-TA and DL-TA in membrane casting solution. FTIR analysis was done for the confirmation of the reaction of PVP and TA in blended membranes and plain PSn membranes. Scanning electron microscope (SEM), field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) were used for analyzing the morphology and structure of the resulting membranes. The membranes were characterized in terms of pure water flux (PWF), hydraulic permeability and HPCT. PWF increased from $52L/m^2h$ to $79.9L/m^2h$ for plain and D-TA containing PSn membrane, respectively. Water contact angle also found to be decreased from $68^{\circ}$ to $55^{\circ}$. In Additionally, permeation and rejection behavior of prepared membranes was studied by bovine serum albumin (BSA) solution. A considerable increase in BSA flux (from $19.1L/m^2h$ for plain membrane to $32.1L/m^2h$ for D-TA containing membrane) was observed. FESEM images affirm that the pore size of the membranes decreases and the membrane permeability increases from 0.16 to 0.32 by the addition of D-TA in the membrane. D-TA increases the HPCT whereas; DL-TA decreases the HPCT of PSn membrane. PVP (average molecular weight of 40000 Da) with D-TA (1 wt%) gave best performance among all the membranes for each parameter.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.9-15
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• 2006

PVA/SSA/HPA composite membranes were prepared by the addition of SSA as a crosslinking agent and HPA such as PWA or SiWA. The water uptake decreased and the IEC increased as the HPA contents increased in PVA/SSA/HPA composite membranes. XRD results showed that HPA distributed well into the composite membranes as the HPA concentration increased, and SiWA dispersed better than PWA in the composite membranes. TGA results showed that PVA/SSA composite membranes were more heat-resistant than PVA due to the crosslinking of PVA, and the heat stability of the composite membranes improved much more as the concentration of HPA increased. The methanol barrier property of PVA/SSA/HPA composite membranes was superior to Nafion, and the methanol permeability of the composite membranes decreased as the concentration of HPA increased.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.9-15
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• 2011

The composite membranes comprising of sulfonated polymers as matrix and ionic liquids as ion-conducting medium in replacement of water are studied to investigate the effect of annealing of the sulfonated polymers. The polymeric membranes are prepared on recast Nafion containing the ionic liquid, 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate ($EMIBF_4$). The composite membranes are characterized by thermogravitational analyses, ion conductivity and small-angle X-ray scattering. The composite membranes annealed at $190^{\circ}C$ for 2 h after the fixed drying step showed better ionic conductivity, but no significant increase in thermal stability. The mean Bragg distance between the ionic clusters, which is reflected in the position of the ionomer peak (small-angle scattering maximum), is larger in the annealed composite membranes containing $EMIBF_4$ than the non-annealed ones. It might have been explained to be due to the different level of ion-clustering ability of the hydrophilic parts (i.e., sulfonic acid groups) in the non- and annealed polymer matrix. In addition, the ionic conductivity of the membranes shows higher for the annealed composite membranes containing $EMIBF_4$. It can be concluded that the annealing of the composite membranes containing ionic liquids due to an increase in ion-clustering ability is able to bring about the enhancement of ionic conductivity suitable for potential use in proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) at medium temperatures ($150-200^{\circ}C$) in the absence of external humidification.

• Macromolecular Research
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.598-603
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• 2004

Cellulose nitrate (CN) composite membranes, containing cobalt porphyrin (CoP) complexes self-assembled within nanometer-sized rhenium clusters (ReCoP), have been prepared and their oxygen and nitrogen gas perme­abilities were analyzed. The solubility of ReCoP and the characteristics of the corresponding composite membranes were analyzed using a Cahn microbalance, FT-IR spectroscopy, wide-angle X-ray scattering, and differential scanning calorimetry. The nitrogen permeability through the CN composite membranes decreased upon addition of ReCoP and CoP, which implies that the presence of these oxygen carrier complexes affects the structure of the polymer matrix. The oxygen permeability through the composite membranes containing small quantities of ReCoP decreased, but it increased upon increasing the concentration. The oxygen gas transport was affected by the matrix at low ReCoP concentrations, but higher concentrations of ReCoP increased the oxygen permeability as a result of its reversible and specific interactions with oxygen, effectively realizing ReCoP carrier-mediated oxygen transport.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.51 no.5
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• pp.380-385
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• 2014

Clay-based membranes with submicron pore size were successfully prepared by a simple pressing process using low-cost starting materials(e.g., kaolin (K), bentonite (B), talc (T), and sodium borate). The green bodies were sintered at $1000^{\circ}C$ for 2 h in air. The effect of clay-mineral composition on the flexural strength of clay-based membranes was investigated. The porosity of the clay-based membranes could be controlled within the range of 34 - 42% by adjusting the starting composition. The flexural strength of the low-cost membranes depended on both the porosity and the ${\alpha}$-quartz content. In turn, the porosity and ${\alpha}$-quartz content were affected by the (B+T) /(K+B+T) ratio. The plot of strength relative to this ratio, showed a maximum when the ratio was 0.4. The typical flexural strength of these clay-based membranes (with ratio 0.4) was 28 MPa at 34% porosity.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.5 no.5
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• pp.772-778
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• 1994

The pervaporation separation experiments of phenol-water mixtures were carried out by using Type 1 (PDMS : crosslinking agent= 1 : 0.25) and Type 2 (PDMS : crosslinking agent= 1 : 0.35) silicone rubber membranes at 30, 40 and $50^{\circ}C$. The phenol concentrations in the feed to be separated were 500 ppm to 5 wt%. Type 2 membranes were more efficient than Type 1 membranes for the separation of phenol-water mixtures. The phenol concentration of 70wt% was obtained for 5wt% of phenol concentration in the feed at $30^{\circ}C$ and 11wt% phenol concentration observed for 500ppm of phenol concentration in the feed at $30^{\circ}C$ by using Type 2 membranes.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.658-668
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• 1997

Path of a small hydrophobic molecule through the aqueous cytoplasma is not linear. Partition may favor membrane binding by several orders of magnitude : thus significant membrane association will markedly decrease the cytosolic transport rate. The presence of high concentration of soluble binding proteins for these hydrophobic molecules would compete with membrane association and thereby increase transport rate. For long chain fatty acid molecules, a family of cytosolic binding proteins collectively known as the fatty acid binding proteins(FABP), are thought to act as intracellular transport proteins. This paper examines the mechanism of transfer of fluorescent antyroyloxy-labeled fatty acids(AOFA) from purified FABPs to phosholipid membranes. With the exception of the liver FABP, AOFA is transferred from FABP by collisional interaction of the protein with a acceptor membrane. The rate of transfer increased markedly when membranes contain anionic phospholipids. This suggests that positively charged residues on the surface of the FABP may interact with the membranes. Neutralization of the surface lysine residues of adipocyte FABP decreased fatty acid transfer rate, and transfer was found to proceed via aqueous diffusion rather than collisional interaction. Site specific mutagenesis has further shown that the helix-turn-helix domain of the FABP is critical for interaction with anionic acceptor membranes. Thus cytosolic FABP may function in intracellular transport of fatty acid to decrease their membranes association as well as to target fatty acid to specific subcellular sites of utilization.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.6 no.5
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• pp.351-363
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• 2015

To increase the surface hydrophilicity of PVDF membranes, in this paper, an electric enhancing method was adopted to treat PVDF nascent membranes during the phase inversion process. It was found that when PEG 600 was taken as the additive, the surface water contact angle of the PVDF membrane treated under 2 kV electric field was decreased from $84.0^{\circ}$ to $65.7^{\circ}$. The reason for the surface elements change of the PVDF membranes prepared under the electric field was analyzed in detail with the dielectric parameters of the polymer dope solutions. Results from BSA adsorption experiment showed that the antifouling ability of the external electric field-treated membranes was distinctly enhanced when compared with that of the untreated membranes. The amount of BSA adsorbed by the treated membranes was lower by 38-43%. Compared with the common chemical reaction methods to synthesize hydrophilic additives or membrane materials, the electric field-assisted processing method did not involve any additional chemical synthesis process and it was capable of realizing better hydrophilicity.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.59-65
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• 1988

To develop porous glass membranes used for a effective membrane-separation process, porous glasses and glass membranes were prepared from the sodium borosilicate parent glass by the phaseseparation technique and effects of heat-treatment and leaching conditions on their characteristics were investigated. The crack-free glass membranes could be fabricated from the 9.4 Na2-O-30.7 B2O3-59.2 SiO2-0.7 Al2O3(wt%) parent glass by heat-treatment at the lower temperature(550-570$^{\circ}C$) and for longer than 45 hrs for the phase separation, followed by leaching with 3N-HCl＋60% ethylene glycol solution at 90$^{\circ}C$ over 25 hrs. Porous glasses prepared in this work showed large specific surface areas(400㎡/g) and narrow pore size distribution with the mean pore radius of 14${\AA}$ enough for the application as reverse osmosis membranes. The salt-rejection efficiency and product-flux of the glass membranes heat-treated at 570$^{\circ}C$ for 80 hrs were found to be 51.8% and 270cc/㎡. hr, respectively. This result suggests that the porous glass membranes fabricated in this study could be applied for the reverse osmosis process.

• Korean Membrane Journal
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.44-54
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• 2004

Organic-inorganic composite membranes based on sulfonated poly(phthalazinone ether sulfone) (sPPES)/silica hybrid were prepared using the sol-gel process under acidic conditions. The sulfonation of PPES with concentrated sulfuric acid as sulfonation agent was carried out to prepare proton exchange membrane material. The behaviors of the proton conductivity and methanol permeability are depended on the sulfonation time (5-100 hr). The hybrid membranes composed of highly sulfonated PPES (IEC value: 1.42 meq./g) and silica were fabricated from different silica content (5-20 wt%) in order to achieve desirable proton conductivity and methanol permeability demanded for fuel cell applications. The silica particles within membranes were used for the purpose of blocking excessive methanol cross-over and for forming the path way to transport of the proton due to absorbing water molecules with ≡SiOH on silica. The presence of silica particles in the organic polymer matrix results in hybrid membranes with reduced methanol permeability and improved proton conductivity.