Preparation and modification of poly (vinyl) alcohol membrane: Effect of crosslinking time towards its morphology

This paper is concerned with the crosslinking of poly (vinyl) alcohol (PVA) using glutaraldehyde as the crosslinking agent. PVA is highly hydrophilic and has excellent film-forming and chemical resistance properties. Chemical crosslinking is the most common approach for stabilizing PVA membranes, which makes it less swollen in the water. Asymmetric PVA membranes were prepared by the immersion–precipitation technique and were further crosslinked with glutaraldehyde. Then, the effects of the crosslinking time on the pore size distribution were examined by porometer. Also, the porosity of the crosslinked PVA membranes was observed via the SEM images and the functional groups that exist in the membrane were determined using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Ultimately, the pure water permeate flux of the crosslinked membrane is done to observe the permeability of produced membrane.