Composite Membranes Prepared by Polyvinyl Alcohol-Maleic Acid onto Polysulfone: Separation Performance of Tea Polyphenol

Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA)-coated membranes on polysulfone (PS) were cross-linked using maleic acid. The membrane properties (viz. hydrophilicity) were tailored for the ester linkage due to PVA and maleic acid cross-linking. The separation of tea polyphenol by PS-PVA composite membrane was investigated in this study. Cross-linked PVA coated on two different molecular weight cut-off (MWCO) PS membrane systems was prepared for this purpose. The permeation flux and separation for tea polyphenol are the criteria for evaluation. The separation of tea-polyphenol follows the trend PS-PVA-IV > PS-PVA-III > PS-PVA-II > PS-PVA-I. Higher dilution deteriorated the tea-polyphenol separation performance of the membranes. The membranes showed their best performance at pH 6.5. The time dependence separation performance study revealed the order PS-PVA-IV > PS-PVA-III > PS-PVA-II > PS-PVA-I membranes.