A new method for cellulose membrane fabrication and the determination of its characteristics

A novel method to fabricate semipermeable cellulose membranes based on cellulose regeneration of a dry membrane cast by the neutralization reaction is presented in this paper. In this method, an environmentally acceptable cellulose dissolution procedure is employed to prepare the membrane casting solution comprised of microcrystalline cellulose dissolved in aqueous NaOH. Moreover, a new cast drying/cellulose regeneration technique is proposed and successfully applied to prepare membranes after the exploitation of the conventional immersion precipitation method, which results in the formation of granular cellulose particles rather than membranes due to the low cellulose concentration (<5 wt%) in the cast. In the present technique, the cellulose concentration in the membrane cast is dramatically increased through water evaporation, and glycerin is utilized in the cellulose regeneration process to achieve a gentle neutralization reaction. As a result, defect-free membranes with a uniform structure are developed. A detailed investigation is also presented concerning the effects of membrane forming parameters, i.e., the concentrations of cellulose, solvent, and acid, and the membrane thickness, on membrane properties. In addition, by coordinating the molecular separation experiments via the ultrafiltration process against a number of macromolecules with various molecular weights, the fabricated membranes are demonstrated to be capable of sieving molecules with a MW above 50,000.