Characterization of chitosan membranes and testing their efficiency in removing calcium ions from aqueous phases

Abstract

This research aims to prepare chitosan membranes (Chi-1%, Chi-1.5%, Chi-2%) from polymeric solutions at different concentrations (1-1.5-2) %, and characterize them. The degree of swelling, porosity, and the mean pore radius were determined. It was found that the prepared membranes have hydrophilic properties, and that increasing the concentration of the polymeric solution led to decrease in both the porosity and the mean pore radius. This was clearly reflected in the values of the flux rates and the efficiency of the prepared membranes in rejecting calcium ions, which were determined using a Dead-end filtration cell. The chitosan membrane with a concentration of 1.5% (Chi-1.5%) achieved the optimum specifications in terms of flux rate, porosity, mean pore radius, and rejected calcium ions with relatively high flux rates.