Synthesis and Characterization of Polyethersulfone/Carbon Molecular Sieve Based Mixed Matrix Membranes for Water Treatment Applications

Novel mixed matrix membrane was prepared by incorporating the carbon molecular sieves (CMS) into polyethersulfone (PES) matrix. Flat sheet membranes of different filler concentrations were synthesized through phase inversion technique. Scanning electron microscope and Thermogravimetric analyzer were used to investigate the morphology and thermal stability of synthesized membranes respectively. Finally membranes were tested for their pure water flux and sodium chloride (NaCl) rejection (100 ppm aqueous solution). Investigation has shown that all synthesized membranes had asymmetric structure with thin dense top and well-defined macropores in sublayer. It is noticed that inclusion of inorganic filler has improved the thermal stability as well as pure water flux of mixed matrix membranes (upto 33.8LMH at 3 bar). Moreover, synthesized mixed matrix membranes also showed better NaCl rejection (upto 26.13% at 3 bar) than pure polymeric membranes.