Fabrication, characterization, and performance of poly (aryl ether nitrile) flat sheet ultrafiltration membranes with polyvinyl pyrrolidone as additives

Abstract Poly(aryl ether nitrile) (PEN) was used to fabricate ultrafiltration membrane via immersion precipitation phase inversion method. The effects of polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) of different molecular weights and concentrations on the structure and performance of PEN membranes were investigated. The membranes were observed by scanning electron microscope, atomic force microscope, equilibrium water content (EWC), porosity ( ε ), and so on. The membranes were subjected to ultrafiltration characterizations such as pure water flux (PWF), compaction factor (CF), hydraulic permeability ( P m ), and bovine serum albumin (BSA) rejection rate. The hydrophilicity was characterized by infrared spectroscopy and contact angle tests. Results showed that molecular weight of PVP had significant effect on PEN membrane formation, which the membrane prepared by PVP-k30 exhibited excellent comprehensive performance. Meanwhile, the concentration of PVP-k30 could effectively control the select-permeability of PEN membrane. With PVP-k30 concentration increased from 7 to 13 wt%, the prepared PEN membranes got higher EWC, ε , CF, and P m . The PWF increased from 146.5 to 249.1 L m −2 h −1 bar −1 , while the overall rejection of BSA remained above 90%. Further increasing the addition amount to 16 wt%, the membrane performance began to decline. Finally, the addition of PVP-k30 could effectively improve the hydrophilicity of prepared PEN membrane surface.