Impact of MEA and NaOH solutions on mechanical properties of microporous hollow fiber polymeric membranes structure

The operational durability of hollow fiber membranes is the main issue in performance and commercializing of membrane contactors. In the present work the chemical and mechanical resistances of various membranes against absorbents were investigated. Four polymeric hollow fiber membranes, PSF,PVDF,PP and HDPE were fabricated and used to expose to mono ethanolamine (MEA) and sodium hydroxide (NaOH) aqueous solutions. These samples were immersed in two types of absorbing liquids; 20wt% MEA and 2M NaOH aqueous solutions for 21 days and were characterized before and during expose to absorbents. The effects of absorbents on the membranes mechanical properties and surface morphologies were studied using tensile test and SEM technique, respectively. Obtained results showed that the pore structure is changed after being exposed to both absorbents. Despite of higher absorbance and lower price of NaOH solution in gas absorbing processes, the mal effect of NaOH solution however, was more severe than MEA solution. It was shown that the membranes of HDPE and PSF had the least and the highest resistance against both of absorbents, respectively. Due to the chemical reaction between membrane and NaOH, it was speculated that then the fabricated membranes in this work exhibit less hydrophobic properties after being exposed to NaOH aqueous solution