Professor Heechul Choi's research team has published an SCI paper with a high school science student through the Advanced Research and Education Program (R&E) at GIST

Advanced Research and Education Program (R&E) with GIST Professor Heechul Choi

Development of highly efficient ultrafiltration membrane published in Chemosphere

□ Professor Heechul Choi of the School of Earth Sciences and Environmental Engineering at the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST) has published an SCI paper entitled "Influence of extreme concentrations of hydrophilic pore-former on reinforced polyethersulfone ultrafiltration membranes for reduction of humic acid fouling" in the journal Chemosphere with two high school students from the Gwangju Science Academy for the Gifted named Junhyeok Jung and Sungsoo Jo who participated in the Advanced Research and Education Program (R&E) at GIST.

∘ The Advanced Research and Education Program (R&E) is designed to help high school support and conduct graduate school research. Through the program, students are able to learn more about their specific research topic until they are sufficiently educated enough to find their own insights and applications.

□ The students participating in the research have been studying with GIST Professor Heechul Choi for the past two year, and they have successfully developed a high performance ultrafiltration membrane along with discovering a new mechanism to reduce contaminants from pollution.

Ultrafiltration membranes are widely used in water and wastewater treatment processes by using a semipermeable membrane to separate substances in a solution according to their molecular size, which can range in size from about 0.01 - 0.1 μm.

∘ The team successfully developed high performance membranes incorporating up to 20% of pore-forming additives (polyvinylpyrrolidone), which had been used at around 10%. Compared to conventional membranes, the new membranes are capable of stably separating humic substances (natural organic matter) contained in wastewater at a removal rate of over 90%), but the new membranes also have 10 times more stain resistance than conventional membranes, which helps to maximize filtration performance.

∘ The team also found that the introduction of excess pore-forming additives improves the porosity, hydrophilicity, and surface roughness of the membrane, and that the humic substance, a typical contaminant, is easily desorbed from the surface of the membrane.

 □ Professor Heechul Choi said, "Our research demonstrates an efficient method to maximize pollution resistance of existing polymer membranes. Also, because high school students have gained valuable research experience from participating in the Advances Research and Education Program, they will contribute to fostering a stronger scientific workforce."

 □ Participating high school students Junhyeok Jung and Sungsoo Jo said, "The theme of filtration was a little unfamiliar for us at first, but it was a valuable experience that allowed us to make further progress as researchers through direct experimentation and analysis."

 □ This research was supported by the R&D Program of the Society of the National Research Foundation (NRF) and funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning and by the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT).