Surfactant Micelle Enhanced Ultrafiltration

Abstract

A large pore size ultrafiltration membrane usually cannot be used to separate small molecules. Even some tight and low-flux reverse osmosis membranes cannot separate small molecules, eg. phenol molecules. The high phenol solubility in the membrane phase is the difficulty. If the small molecules are held by larger particles, separation can be easily done by ultrafiltration and in high flux. We are reporting the ultrafiltration of small molecules, eg. phenol, bromophenol and metallic-ion chelating agents by the addition of micelle-forming surfactants. The affinity of these small molecules to the large micelle particles contributes to a high efficiency ultrafiltration separation.