Submit Manuscript | http://medcraveonline.com Introduction Membrane separation is a fundamental unit operation for water treatment and desalination. 1 Currently, Egypt suffers from water shortage problems due to the increase in water demand and the limited available surface or groundwater supplies. The suggested solution to overcome the current situation is a rationalization of water consumption, adoption of water treatment and reuse programs in addition to water desalination. Water treatment and reuse projects may include numerous membrane separation processes such as microfltration (MF), ultrafltration (UF), and nanofltration (NF). On the other hand, brackish and seawater desalination depends principally on electro-dialysis, nanofltration and reverse osmosis. With such increasing dependence on membrane separation, it is important to improve the characteristics of separation membrane and enhance membrane reliability. 2,3 In particular, membrane fux, solute rejection, and fouling come as the priority of membrane development, manufacture, and operation. Polysulfone (PS) material has been used in membrane fabrication due to its excellent physical and chemical properties such as thermal stability, good mechanical strength, and good chemical resistance to several materials in different pH range. PS membranes applications include water desalination, hemodialysis, wastewater treatment, water desalination, food and drinking processes, membrane distillation and gas separation. 4‒6 Although of these advantages, there are two major drawbacks in the use of PS membrane: fouling and hydrophobic properties. Many studies have been done to overcome these problems by fnding new techniques for PS membrane surface modifcation. 7,8 Some authors 9‒14 used a combination of electrochemical cell and membrane system for the enhancement of the fltration process during treatment of different wastewater sources and mitigate membrane fouling. Removal effciencies of COD, orthophosphate, ammonia, and nitrogen compounds using the current density of 12.5A/m 2 reached to 95%, 85%, and 80% respectively using Poly-vinylidene-di-fuoride (PVDF) hollow fber membrane with stainless steel electrodes. 9 The removal effciency of COD was more than 95% at different voltages tested 0.5, 0.7, 0.9Volt when using Nickel as a cathode and graphite fber brush as anode. 10 Membrane fltration and fouling reduction were enhanced by about 44% at a current density of 0.5mA/cm 2 applied on HF membrane fltration. The adopted electrodes were aluminum anode and stainless steel cathode. 11 With the aid of electric current from electrodes composed of the aluminum anode and stainless steel cathode, membrane fouling reduced three times than without using electric current in the treatment of synthetic wastewater. 12 Applying a voltage of 10mV on PVDF hollow fber membrane on fltration of cheese wastewater and synthetic solution showed 90% removal of COD and 69% of total inorganic nitrogen compounds with aid of carbon cloth electrodes. 13 Increasing of fux was observed when electric feld strength from 15 to 20V/cm was employed in a reactor consisting of polypropylene hollow fber membrane and electrodes of stainless steel material in the treatment of urban domestic sewage. 14 Some studies investigated the effect of electric current as a post- treatment on membrane surface materials. The effect of electric feld on (PVDF) microfltration membranes has been studied and succeeded in imparting piezoelectric properties to the membrane due to the polar effect of the electric feld. Filtration experiments of polyethylene glycol (PEG) showed a decrease of fouling and enhancement of membrane fux after polar treatment. 15,16 Changing membrane microstructure and membrane topography have been confrmed by using electric feld treatment on different selected membrane surfaces including; MF, UF, NF, and RO membranes. The results of the treated membranes showed a decrease in surface roughness. Membrane performance was also affected where the fltration experiments showed a fux decline and high rejection. 17,18 The purpose of the present study is to study the electric feld effects on HF membrane surface morphology and chemical compositions. Int J Petrochem Sci Eng. 2019;4(3):117‒121. 117 © 2019 Shawky et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and build upon your work non-commercially. Effect of electric potential on the morphology and chemical composition of hollow fber membrane surface in alkaline medium Volume 4 Issue 3 - 2019 Nourhan A Shawky, 1 Aly Abdallah SM, 2 Mohamed H Sorour, 1 Ahmed M Awad Abouelata, 1 Mona A Abdel-Fatah 1 1 Chemical Engineering and Pilot Plant Dept, Engineering Research Division, National Research Centre, Egypt 2 Chemical and Refning Engineering Dept, Faculty of Petroleum and Mining Engineering, Suez University, Egypt Correspondence: Mona A Abdel-Fatah, Assistant Professor, Chemical Engineering and Pilot Plant Dept., Engineering Research Division, National Research Centre, Dokki, Cairo, Egypt, Tel +2 02 33371499/ 233371728, Email Received: June 17, 2019 | Published: June 28, 2019 Abstract The impact of electric potential on the dimensional characteristics and membrane surface morphology was investigated in this work. Our study samples comprise hollow fber (HF) Polysulfone (PS) membrane. Conductive additives have been incorporated within the membrane matrix at the desired predefned concentration. The DC operated electrochemical apparatus consists of graphite anode and stainless steel cathode. The voltage and current density ranges are 2 to 10volts and 0.01 to 1.4mA/mm 2 respectively. These investigations have been conducted in alkaline medium at pH=8.5. The results of this work revealed essential changes of hollow fber (HF) dimensions, including external (DO), internal (DI) and membrane thickness (t). The maximum decrease of DO, DI, and t were 13%, 15%, and 11% respectively at 5volts. EDX analysis showed the maximum sodium ions of about 0.84% on the membrane surface at 2.5volts after 1-hour treatment. Keywords: hollow fber membrane, electrochemical treatment, modifcation, alkaline medium International Journal of Petrochemical Science & Engineering Research Article Open Access