Copyright © 2018 Authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. International Journal of Engineering & Technology, 7 (3.11) (2018) 223-227 International Journal of Engineering & Technology Website: www.sciencepubco.com/index.php/IJET Research paper Morphological and Filtration Performance Studies of Alumina Disc Membranes ‘Azzah Nazihah Che Abdul Rahim 1 , ‘Ainun Sailah Sihar 1 , Munawar Zaman Shahruddin 1 , Nur Hashimah Alias 1 , Siti Nurliyana Che Mohamed Hussein 1 , Mohd Fazril Irfan 1 ,Nur Hidayati Othman 1 * 1 Department of Oil and Gas Engineering, Faculty of Chemical Engineering, UiTM, 40450, Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia *Corresponding author E-mail: nurhidayati0955@salam.uitm.edu.my Abstract Ceramic membranes can be used for water separation and gas filtration owing to its chemical inertness, good mechanical and porous properties. In this work, a total of 18 ceramic membranes were fabricated by varying the parameters such as ceramic powder composition (Al2O3), solvent (DMSO) concentration in external coagulation bath, and sintering time. The morphologies of the prepared alumina disc membranes prepared were studied using digital microscope. In order to understand the effects of morphologies toward the permeation rate of the ceramic membranes-dead end water permeation tests and salt rejection tests were carried out to study the performance of the alumina disc membranes. Membrane 1 which was fabricated with 50% alumina loading, 0% DMSO in coagulant and sintering time of 8h was used as reference membrane. It was found that by increasing the alumina up to 65%, the structure become denser and water flux decreased up to 26%, while the salt rejected increased by 55%. Effect of increasing the solvent concentration in external coagulation bath was obvious in finger length which becomes shorter and performed 61% but fluctuates in salt rejection. Sintering time effect was not significant in salt rejection studies as it gives only small difference but increase in water flux because the longer sintering time caused void to the membrane. Different results were shown and proven with varied parameters such as alumina loading, DMSO concentration and sintering time. Keywords: Ceramic membranes; alumina discs; morphology; filtration; water treatment. 1. Introduction Ceramic membranes are considered as a viable alternative to pol- ymeric membranes in wastewater treatment processes owing to their high chemical, thermal, and mechanical resistance. They are generally more resistant to harsh operating conditions, thus, min- imizing the operating cost. Isostatic pressing is commonly used to manufacture ceramic membranes [1]. However, it is quite difficult to tailor the structure and morphology of the fabricated mem- branes. Phase inversion is a controlled process of polymer transformation from a liquid phase to solid phase and has been widely exploited in the fabrication of polymeric membranes [2]. The formation of various membrane structures/morphology, especially the for- mation of “skin layer” is as a result of thermodynamic and kinetic aspects of phase separation processes. The use of phase inversion and sintering technique for the fabrication of ceramic membranes has recently emerged due to their relatively simple laboratory- scale fabrication process. The fabrication method of using single step of inducing phase inversion and sintering technique have greatly reduced the energy and time consumed. A reduction in the number of steps was observed as compared to traditional pressing technique by eliminating the needs of additional deposit layer on the substrate to produce microfiltration or ultrafiltration mem- branes [3]. This makes the fabrication of ceramic membrane to be more effective and have attracted researchers to produce ceramic membranes for wide range of applications. Fabrication via this method promises asymmetric structure, which consists of finger-like and sponge like region due to the phenome- non which occurred at the interface between two different viscosi- ty fluids when it first met. Ceramic suspension from the mixing of ceramic/polymer/solvent once immersed in a non-solvent (coagu- lant) will cause a steep concentration gradient that led to the ex- change of solvent and non-solvent. This will result in the precipi- tation of polymer phase while the ceramic particle is immobilized. The instabilities at the interface between the alumina suspension and coagulant is the initiating factor for viscous finger-like to form. The thickness and length of the finger-like and sponge-like region has great impact on the properties of the membrane and the effort to understand the mechanisms are crucial to produce mem- brane with desired application. The present work is therefore aimed at examining how the parameters of choice affects the for- mation and the morphology of membranes. In this study, the effects of alumina ceramic composition and co- agulation bath compositions towards the membrane morphology and filtration performances were investigated. The fabricated alumina disc membranes were characterized by digital microscope and the filtration performance was investigated using sodium chlo- ride solution.