Preparation and properties of poly(vinyl chloride) and poly(vinyl alcohol) blend membrane

Abstract

The aim of this work is to improve the performance of poly (vinyl chloride) (PVC) membrane by preparation of blend membrane from PVC and poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA). The blend membranes were prepared by non-solvent induced phase separation technique from the mixture solution of PVC and PVA by using N- methyl-2-pyrrolidinone (NMP) and water as solvent and non-solvent, respectively. The effect of PVA content added in the PVC solution on the morphology, porosity, pure water flux, and tensile properties of membrane were studied. By using scanning electron microscopy (SEM ), it was found that the cross-section of obtained membranes present the asymmetric structure with the upper skin layer supported with finger-like macro void structure. The addition of PVA in PVC casting solution leads to the thinner of upper skin layer, higher porosity, and bigger of macrovoid resulting in a higher of pure water flux. The water absorbance ratio of PVC/PVA blend membrane was higher than that of PVC membrane indicated the hydrophilic improvement. However, a decrease in tensile properties was found in the presence of PVA in the membrane.