Abstract
A biopolymer, kappa-carrageenan, was investigated as a pore-former for preparing highly porous polyphenylsulfone (PPSU) membranes. The prepared membranes were characterized by atomic force microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, contact angle zeta-potential, porosity, mean pore diameter, and water permeability. The results demonstrated that the pure membrane's finger-like structure was replaced by a continuous porous structure with uniformly distributed pores when kappa-carrageenan was added. More importantly, the membrane porosity and mean pore diameter increased from 48 +/- 3% to 78 +/- 2% and from similar to 2 nm to 1.1 mu m, respectively, demonstrating the strong potential of kappa-carrageenan as a pore -former. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.