FABRICATION OF PSF/SiO2 NANOCOMPOSITE MEMBRANE AND APPLICATION IN APPLE JUICE CLARIFICATION PROCESS

In this study, PSF/PEI (20/2% w/w) membranes which were fabricated by using phase inversion method were modified with using SiO2 nanoparticles at different concentrations (0.01, 0.03, 0.05% w/w) and performance of fabricated nanocomposite membranes were evaluated in clarification of turbid apple juice. Membrane experiments were conducted using dead-end filtration process. Fabricated new generation nanocomposite membranes were characterized in terms of pure water flux, SEM and water contact angle. Moreover, clarified apple juice samples obtained from fabricated PSF/PEI/SiO2 new generation nanocomposite membranes were characterized in terms of color (Pt-Co), turbidity (NTU) and total soluble solid content (Brix) and these samples were compared to clarified apple juice samples supplied from D？hler Inc. in terms of these parameters. According to the obtained results, the membrane produced by adding 0.01% SiO2 was determined as the membrane having the highest pure water flux and highest hydrophilicity. At the same time, this membrane showed the best performance in apple juice clarification experiments by producing apple juice which had the highest color and total solid matter content and lowest turbidity value