Perfluorosulfonic acid—Tetraethoxysilane/polyacrylonitrile (PFSA‐TEOS/PAN) hollow fiber composite membranes prepared for pervaporation dehydration of ethyl acetate–water solutions

Preparation of organic‐inorganic composite membranes and their pervaporation (PV) permeation and separation characteristics for the aqueous solution of ethyl acetate were described. Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) hollow fiber ultrafiltration membrane as support membrane, the mixtures of perfluorosulfonic acid (PFSA) and tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) by the sol‐gel reaction as the coating solution, the PFSA‐TEOS/PAN hollow fiber composite membranes by the different annealing conditions were prepared. The swelling of PFSA in ethyl acetate aqueous solutions was inhibited with addition of TEOS. The PFSA‐TEOS/PAN composite membranes containing up to 30 wt % TEOS in coating solution exhibited high selectivity towards water, then the selectivity decreased and permeation flux increased with increasing the TEOS concentration more than 30 wt %. When the PFSA‐TEOS/PAN composite membranes were annealed, the separation factor increased with increasing annealing temperature and time. Higher annealing temperature and longer annealing time promoted the crosslinking reaction between PFSA and TEOS in PFSA‐TEOS/PAN composite membranes, leading to the enhanced selectivity towards water. For the PFSA/PAN and PFSA‐TEOS/PAN composite membrane with 5 and 30 wt % TEOS annealed at 90°C for 12 h, their PV performance of aqueous solution 98 wt % ethyl acetate were as follows: the separation factors were 30.8, 254 and 496, while their permeation flux were 1430, 513 and 205 g/m² h at 40°C, respectively. In addition, the PV performance of PFSA‐TEOS/PAN composite membranes was investigated at different feed solution temperature and concentration. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2008