Effects of Polyvinyl Alcohol(PVA) Content on the Microstructures of Unsupported Alumina Membranes

Polyvinyl Alcohol(PVA) can prevent the microcrack of the sol-gel-derived aluminamembranes from occurring during the drying process, and at the same time has effects on themicrostructures of the membranes. In the present paper, the crystalline phase, thermal stability,specific surface area, pore size distribution and pore surface fractal of alumina membranes dopedwith PVA were characterized by XRD,DTA,DGA, FT-IR and BET. The results show that PVA iscompletely removed after calcination at 400℃. The N2 adsorbed amount of PVA-doped aluminamembranes is greater than that of pure membranes, but doesn't increase in proportion to PVAcontent. The PVA-doped alumina membranes have a sharper pore size distribution, higher porevolume and lower pore surface fractal dimension.