Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) membrane has been prepared by phase inversion method and subsequently modified by surface grafting polymerization of acrylic acid (AA). The influence of the surface modification on membrane properties has been investigated through the surface characteristics and separation performance. | VNU Journal of Science: Natural Sciences and Technology, Vol. 32, No. 4 (2016) 104-109 Surface Modification of Polyacrylonitrile Membrane Through Photochemical Graft Polymerization of Acrylic Acid Tran Thi Dung*, Ngo Hong Anh Thu, Vu Thi Quyen, Pham Thi Phuong Department of Chemical Technology, Faculty of Chemistry, VNU University of Science, 19 Le Thanh Tong, Hoan Kiem, Hanoi, Vietnam Received 07 July 2016 Revised 15 August 2016; Accepted 01 September 2016 Abstract: Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) membrane has been prepared by phase inversion method and subsequently modified by surface grafting polymerization of acrylic acid (AA). The influence of the surface modification on membrane properties has been investigated through the surface characteristics and separation performance. The experimental results indicated that the grafting polymerization of AA leads to the reduced membrane skin pore size and the lower surface roughness. The separation performance of the modified PAN membrane is highly impoved due to the enhanced flux and the higher protein (BSA) retention; the antifouling property of membranes is also improved compared with that of the unmodified one. Keywords: Polyacrylonitrile membrane, surface modification, photochemical graft polymerization, acrylic acid. 1. Introduction* organic substances having a small molecular weight. However, PAN material is rather hydrophobic, thus resulting the fouling phenomenon during filtration, especially for organic feed solutions [2, 3]. Recently, the improvement of separation and antifouling properties of PAN membranes is carried out by grafting of hydrophilic polymeric layer onto membrane surface [4, 5]. The UV-photoinduced graft polymerization has been known as a convenient technique for the surface modification of polymeric membranes [6, 7]. In this work, PAN membrane was prepared by phase inversion method and subsequently modified by surface grafting polymerization of Membrane filtration technology has been widely used
