Flux reduction of ultrafiltration membranes with different cut-off due to adsorption of a low-molecular-weight hydrophobic solute-correlation between flux decline and pore size

• The flux of ultrafiltration membranes may be severely reduced when treating low-molecular-weight hydrophobic solutes even though the cut-off of the membrane is orders of magnitudes greater than the size of the solute molecules. In this investigation, the flux reduction was correlated to the membrane pore size using octanoic acid as a model substance. As a comparison, the pore size was also determined by measuring the retention of a dextran solution and by using the liquid-liquid displacement porometry method (LLDP). The membranes used were four asymmetric polysulphone and polyethersulphone membranes with nominal molecular weight cut-off (NMWCO) between 6 and 50 kDa. It is shown that the use of a low-molecular-weight hydrophobic solute may provide a rapid and simple method of characterising hydrophobic ultrafiltration membranes, both regarding their sensitivity to flux reduction due to adsorption, and their pore-size distribution (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Subject headings

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Kemiteknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Chemical Engineering (hsv//eng)

Keyword

fouling

capillary induced phase separation

hydrophobic solute

pore

size

membrane characterization

Publication and Content Type

art (subject category)

ref (subject category)