Vol.8 (2018) No. 3 ISSN: 2088-5334 The Effect of TiO2 Particles Addition on the Characteristics of Polysulfone Membrane Nurul Nadiah Said 1 , Fazlena Hamzah 1, , Nur Azrini Ramlee 1 , and Nur Najwa Yunus 1 1 Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA, 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia nurulnadiah.said@gmail.com, fazlena@salam.uitm.edu.my Abstract— This study aimed to characterize the modified Polysulfone-TiO 2 membrane via hydrophilic character, the molecular weight cutoff of the membrane and surface morphology of the membrane. Flat sheet modified Polysulfone membrane was prepared by using the phase inversion technique. N-methylene-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) was used as a solvent to dilute Polysulfone pellets. Titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) were added to enhance the hydrophobic character of the Polysulfone membrane. The hydrophilic characteristics of the modified Polysulfone-TiO 2 membrane were analyzed by contact angle and were compared with conventional Polysulfone membrane. It was found that the addition of TiO 2 in Polysulfone membrane has improved the hydrophilic performance of Polysulfone membrane toward water flux. The membranes also were tested with a molecular weight cut off (MWCO) using different weights of polyethylene glycol (PEG) which are 200, 400, 600 and 1000 Da. For membrane with the addition of TiO 2 , a decreased in pore sizes was determined. The membranes also were analyzed under scanning electron microscope (SEM) to determine the morphology of the surface and cross-section. It was found that pore sizes of Polysulfone with TiO 2 membrane have become smaller, which contain more nano in size and formation of finger-like voids compared to the Polysulfone membrane. Keywords— titanium dioxide; polysulfone; hydrophilic; molecular weight; morphology I. INTRODUCTION The addition of titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) particle in Polysulfone membrane is one of the alternatives in solving the known limitation of Polysulfone which is a hydrophobic character. Polysulfone membrane was widely applied in the industry especially involved with ultrafiltration as it has multiple advantages such as high mechanical strength, high rigidity, natural film-forming, good resistance toward temperature, chemical stability as well as wide pH value range (pH 2 – 12) [1], [2]. The hydrophobic Polysulfone has been improved by using hydrophilic material especially inorganic material as this kind of material provides more convenient operation and gives a stable effect [2]. TiO 2 has become one of the most active inorganic material which provides a super-hydrophilicity and other advantages such as non-toxic, good compatibility with organic solvents used in dope solution, anti-decomposing- bacterial and UV-resistance (1). Since TiO 2 has offered good advantages, it has been applied widely in catalysts, sunscreens, cosmetics, coatings [3] as well as food packaging applications [4]. The hydrophilicity of TiO 2 can alter the hydrophobic Polysulfone after it has been treated by anionic surfactant sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) [2]. To improve the membrane performance, the surface porosity of the Polysulfone membrane needs to improve by the presence of the nanoparticle, TiO 2 [5]. The asymmetrical Polysulfone membrane which consists of dense skin and porous layer has been thickened with TiO 2 concentration. Thus, in the present study, the effect of TiO 2 particles on the different formulation of Polysulfone membrane was investigated. Less research was reported on the effect of TiO 2 on the different formulation of Polysulfone membrane. The effect of the addition of TiO 2 in Polysulfone membrane was analyzed by determining the hydrophilicity of the membrane, the pore size of the membranes via molecular weight cutoff (MWCO), and also surface image under scanning electron microscope (SEM). II. MATERIAL AND METHOD A. Material Polysulfone pellet (Mw ≈ 35,000 g/mol) was bought from Sigma Aldrich, 1-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) was purchased from Merck, polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) K30 in powder formed was purchased from Sinopharm and titanium dioxide (TiO2) in powder formed was purchased from R&M Chemicals. 825