Determining moisture absorption/desorption properties of commercial membranes by thermogravimetry (TG)

A series of different commercial membranes were characterized by their moisture absorption and desorption properties under controlled humidity and temperature conditions. This work was made possible by combining the features of a constant humidity conditioning chamber with those of a thermogravimetric (TG) apparatus. These two modules were interconnected by tubing, rotameters, an atmosphere-recycling microbellows pump and switching valves. Under programmed heating and isothermal conditions reproducible data were obtained in terms of weight-gain or weight-lossvs. time and pore size. Evaluation of the resulting TG curves allowed us to report reasonable differences in the materials, some of which had been previously surface-modified by the manufacturer.