EFFECT OF CONCENTRATION OF SULFONATING AGENT ON THE CHARGE EFFECTIVENESS OF SULFONATED POLYSULFONE MEMBRANE

Abstract

EFFECT OF CONCENTRATION OF SULFONATING AGENT ON THE CHARGE EFFECTIVENESS OF SULFONATED POLYSULFONE MEMBRANE. Polysulfone (PSF) has been sulfonated homogeneously using chlorosulfonic acid as a sulfonating agent in chloroform. The concentration of sulfonating agent from 6 to 10 wt%was varied to study its effect on membrane effective charge. The sulfonatedmembranewere characterizedto determinethe presence of functional group by Fourier Transform-Infra Red (FT-IR), the Ionic Exchange Capacity (IEC) by titration, the water uptake by gravimetry and the transport properties by membrane potential measurements. It was found a new peak at 3350 em:' after sulfonation, which corresponds to -OH stretching of the sulfonicgroup. This data proved that the -SOJH group were introducedsuccessfullyinto the polymer chain. Based on Teorell-Meyer-Sievers(TMS) equation and membranepotential data, we found that the membrane effective charge increases with the sulfonating agent concentration. The increase of concentration from 6 to 8 wt% increases the effective charge from 0.003 to 0.06. This result was also supported by lEC and water uptake data.