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Updated: Sep 29, 2025
Characteristics of Precipitation-formed Polyethylene Glycol Microgels Are Controlled by Molecular Weight of Reactants
Published on: December 23, 2013
Modification of Thin Film Composite Pressure Retarded Osmosis Membrane by Polyethylene Glycol with Different
Siti Nur Amirah Idris1,2, Nora Jullok1,2, Woei Jye Lau3
1Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Universiti Malaysia Perlis, Kompleks Pusat Pengajian Jejawi 3, Kawasan Perindustrian Jejawi, Arau 02600, Perlis, Malaysia.
Abstract:
An investigation of the effect of the molecular weight of polyethylene glycol (PEG) on thin-film composite (TFC) flat sheet polysulfone membrane performance was conducted systematically, for application in forward osmosis (FO) and pressure retarded osmosis (PRO). The TFC flat sheet PSf-modified membranes were prepared via a non-solvent phase-separation technique by introducing PEGs of different molecular weights into the dope solution. The TFC flat sheet PSf-PEG membranes were characterized by SEM, FTIR and AFM. The PSf membrane modified with PEG 600 was found to have the optimum composition. Under FO mode, this modified membrane had a water permeability of 12.30 Lm-2h-1 and a power density of 2.22 Wm-2, under a pressure of 8 bar in PRO mode, using 1 M NaCl and deionized water as the draw and feed solutions, respectively. The high water permeability and good mechanical stability of the modified TFC flat sheet PSF-PEG membrane in this study suggests that this membrane has great potential in future osmotically powered generation systems.
