Separation of alcohol–water mixture by pervaporation through a novel natural polymer blend membrane–chitosan/silk fibroin blend membrane

A novel natural polymer blend membrane, namely chitosan/silk fibroin blend membrane, was prepared. The selective solubility and the pervaporation properties of alcohol–water mixture were studied. The results showed that the membrane was water selective and the separation factor of ethanol–water mixture could be improved compared to pure chitosan membrane, when silk fibroin content in blend membrane was no more than 40 wt %. The blend membrane exhibited a best performance, (i.e., the water in permeate was large than 99 wt % when silk content was 20 wt % and the crosslinking agent–glutaraldehyde content was 0.5 mol %). The mechanism of improvement on pervaporation properties was explained by reducing the free volume and freeing hydrophilic groups of chitosan because of the strong intermolecular hydrogen bond forming between chitosan and silk fibroin in blend membrane. In addition, the influence of operation temperature and feed concentration as well as the pervaporation properties of isopropanol–water mixture were also studied. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 73: 975–980, 1999     

Preferential separation of ethanol from aqueous solution through hydrophilic polymer membranes

The pervaporation behaviors of aqueous ethanol mixtures through the poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO)/chitosan (CS) blend membrane were investigated. The results show that both CS and PEO/CS membrane preferentially permeate ethanol at a lower alcohol concentration in feed, and the selectivity of CS membrane toward alcohol can be greatly improved by introducing hydrophilic polymer PEO into CS. The PEO/CS blend membrane gave a separation factor of 4.4 and a flux of 0.9 kg m⁻² h for 8 wt % of ethanol in the feed at 20°C. At the same time, the reason introducing PEO can improve alcohol-permselectivity of CS membrane is explained on the basis of experimental data. Blending with PEO made the structure of CS chain looser, which resulted in ethanol molecules passing through easily, on the other hand, strengthened the ability of forming water clusters that inhibit the permeation of water molecules. From the experimental results, although the PEO/CS blend membrane was not a usable membrane with high selectivity to alcohol, a new method to prepare alcohol-permselective membranes appears to be developed by modifying hydrophilic polymers. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 73: 1145–1151, 1999     

Separation properties of alcohol–water mixture through silicalite-I-filled silicone rubber membranes by pervaporation

The structure and the adsorption–desorption properties of zeolite silicalite-I by different treatments after synthesis were studied. The pervaporation properties of the alcohol–water mixture through silicone rubber filled with zeolite silicalite-I by different treatments were also investigated. Treating silicalite-I by acid or/and under steam was found to eliminate the metallic impurities in the zeolite and to perfect the crystalline structure of the zeolite. After treatment, silicalite-I is more selective to alcohol and the desorption of the alcohol from the zeolite is also easier. The silicone rubber membrane filled with treated silicalite-I shows a high performance for alcohol extraction from the dilute aqueous solution by pervaporation. The separation factor of the poly(dimethyl siloxane) (PDMS) membrane filled with silicalite-I treated successively by acid and steam is about 30 when the ethanol content in the feed is 5 wt % at 50°C. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 67: 629–636, 1998     

Characterization of permeation behaviors of ethanol–water mixtures through sodium alginate membrane with crosslinking gradient during pervaporation separation

Dense sodium alginate (SA) membranes crosslinked with glutaraldehyde were prepared by a new solution technique, which had different extents of crosslinking gradient structures. The SA membranes having a crosslinking gradient structure were fabricated by exposing one side of the membrane to the reaction solution while blocking the other side by a polyester film to prevent the reaction solution from contacting it. The extent of the crosslinking gradient was controlled by the exposing time. When the swelling measurements were performed with uniformly crosslinked membranes in aqueous solutions of 70–90 wt % ethanol contents, it was observed that the crosslinking could reduce both the solubility of water in the membrane and the permselectivity of the membrane toward water. The pervaporation separation of the ethanol–water mixture of 90 wt % ethanol content was carried out with membranes with different extents of crosslinking gradients. As the crosslinking gradient was developed more across the membrane, the resulting flux as well as the separation factor to water was found to decrease while the membrane became stable against water. The pervaporation performances of the membranes with different membrane loadings in a membrane cell were also discussed using the schematic concentration and activity profiles of the permeant developed in them. The pervaporation separations of the ethanol/water mixtures through the membrane with an optimal crosslinking gradient were performed at different feed compositions and temperatures ranging from 40 to 80°C. The change in the membrane performance due to the relaxation process during pervaporation was observed with the operating temperature and feed composition. The relaxational phenomena were also elucidated through an analysis of the experimental data of the membrane performance measured by repeating the operation in a given temperature range. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 69: 1607–1619, 1998     

Dehydration of ethanol through blend membranes of chitosan and sodium alginate by pervaporation

Polyion complex membranes made by blending 84% deacetylated chitosan and sodium alginate biopolymers followed by crosslinking with glutaraldehyde were tested for the separation of ethanol–water mixtures. The membranes were characterized by FTIR to verify the formation of the polyion complex, X-ray diffraction (XRD) to observe the effects of blending on crystallinity, DSC, and TGA to investigate the thermal stability, and tensile testing to assess their mechanical stability. The effect of experimental parameters such as feed composition, membrane thickness and permeate pressure on separation performance of the crosslinked membranes was determined. Sorption studies were carried out to evaluate the extent of interaction and degree of swelling of the blend membranes, in pure as well as mixtures of the two liquids. Crosslinked blend membranes were found to have good potential for breaking the azeotrope of 0.135 mol fraction of water and a high selectivity of 436 was observed at a reasonable flux of 0.22 kg/(m² 10 μm h). Membrane selectivities were found to improve with decreasing membrane pressure but remained relatively constant for variable membrane thickness. Increasing membrane thickness decreased the flux and higher permeate pressure caused a reduction in both flux and selectivity.     

壳聚糖膜对水/乙醇混合液的渗透汽化性能 Ⅰ.无机盐络合与聚离子复合的作用

本文报道了壳聚糖膜经无机盐溶液处理或聚阴离子复合后,其分离乙醇／水体系的渗透汽化性能。结果表明,上述两种处理方法均能提高壳聚糖膜的分离性能。     

γ-（2,3环氧丙氧）丙基三甲氧基硅烷改性海藻酸钠和明胶渗透蒸发杂化膜的制备及乙酸脱水性能研究

通过硅烷偶联剂对海藻酸钠-明胶共混膜进行交联改性制备乙酸脱水渗透蒸发杂化膜。实验结果表明：随着偶联剂含量的增加,杂化膜的对水的选择性先增加后下降,在3 wt%时有最好的选择性,同时膜的渗透通量随着偶联剂含量增加而增大;膜的选择性随着进料乙酸浓度增大而增大,通量随着进料乙酸浓度增大而减少。     

藻朊酸钠渗透汽化膜分离有机液／水混合物

研究了藻朊酸钠均质膜及藻朊酸钠／酸丙烯腈复合膜的渗透汽化特性。发现它们对甲醇、乙醇、异丙醇、丙酮、四氢呋喃（ＴＨＦ）、二氧六环、丙三醇等有机溶剂与水的混合望远镜水优选 透过，其渗透通量与选择分离系数都非常高。复合膜与均质膜相比，通量成倍增加，除甲醇／水体系外，对其他体系的分离系数不大，对二氧六环／水体系的分离系数复合膜更高。三种藻朊酸钠样品对乙醇／水，二氧六环／水的透过分离性能有所差异，对此，从膜