Morphology and characteristics of polyethersulfone membrane modified with polyethylene glycol hexadecyl ether and nanocarbon

The development of polyethersulfone (PES) membranes to improve membrane performance can be done in various ways; one is by combining two types of additives (organic and inorganic) in one dope polymer solution. In this study, researchers analyzed the effect of combining polyethylene glycol hexadecyl ether (PEG-HE) as an organic additive and nanocarbon as an inorganic additive on the characteristics and performance of PES membranes. The membrane performance test includes analysis of pure water flux and rejection of synthetic fertilizer factory wastewater (Mg²⁺) with a concentration of 300 ppm. The membrane characterization was carried out by analyzing the morphology of the membrane structure using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), water contact angle (WCA), porosity, and membrane pore size. Ultrafiltration experiment showed that the modified PES membrane with PEG-HE and Nanocarbon had the highest pure water flux. The most significant rejection coefficient of 96.88% was found in an ultrafiltration experiment using pure PES membranes. The characteristic of other membranes will be described in detail in this article.