Fabrication and Characterization of Polysulfone Membrane Based On GO-SiO₂ Composite using Phase Inversion Method

Departement of Physics, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Universitas Negeri Surabaya, Ketintang Campus, Surabaya-East Java-Indonesia

^* Corresponding Author: munasir_physics@unesa.ac.id

Abstract

This research purpose to determine the material composition in the manufacture of polysulfone membranes by producing the best performance in the filtration application process. Polysulfone has good thermal and chemical stability properties that make it a candidate material in membrane manufacturing, but the hydrophobicity properties of polysulfone result in less than optimal membrane performance, so a blending process is needed to reduce hydrophobicity by maintaining the advantages of the membrane. The membrane was prepared using phase inversion with composite doping through the TEOS in situ hydrolysis method. The results of XRD identification showed that the diffraction pattern was successfully coated with silica with the amorphous phase, while the FTIR contained Si-O-Si bonds with a wave number of 1054 cm^-1. The SEM surface morphology showed that the presence of silica and GO made the pore size larger with the pore size on the membrane 1,92 μm. The results of the contact angle test on the GO-SiO₂/PSF variation of 0,8 obtained the lowest hydrophobicity value of 70,17°. The addition of composites will result in a larger pore size supported by the value of the contact angle, proving that the combination of the composite in polysulfone can increase the hydrophilicity of the membrane.