Study on the Effects of Dimethylformide in the Preparation of Polycarbonate/Dichloromethane Dope Solution

Polycarbonate (PC) is well-known in plastic industry, polycarbonate as well used in separation membrane industry. The dissolution of polycarbonate in different aprotic polar solvent will give different result in final cast solution. The reaction when the cast during phase inversion also will show different reaction and various kind of polymer membrane film. It is believed that addition of co-solvent and other variation of preparation condition in the main solvent during the preparation of dope solution will effects much in final membrane film‟s performance and quality. In this study, the effect of Dimethylformide (DMF) addition as co-solvent in the polymer dope solution is observed in the aspect of density and viscosity. Density of the solution was obtained using manual determination by pycnometer while viscosity is determined using Ubbelohde viscometer. The dope solution used dry phase inversion to form film membrane and the evaporation time is compared by visualization. It was shown that changing the amount of DMF altered the density and the viscosity of dope solution significantly. Other than that, there is limitation where only at certain ratio of co-solvent can be added as co-solvent disturbs the dissolution of polymer.