Effect of silver-nanoparticles generated in poly(vinyl alcohol)membranes on ethanol dehydration via pervaporation

Pervaporation is an important membrane separation method of chemical engineering. In this work, silver-nanoparticles-poly (vinyl alcohol) nanocomposite membranes (AgNPs-PVA) are produced for the sake of improving its potentials for pervaporation of ethanol–water mixture so that the usual opposite trend between membrane selectivity and permeation can be reduced. The nanocomposite membranes are fabricated from an aqueous solution of poly (vinyl alcohol) with silver nanoparticles via the in-situ generation technique in the absence of any reducing agent. Successful generation of the nano size silver is measured by the UV–vis spectrum showing a single peak at 419 nm due to the plasmonic effect of silver nanoparticles. Our nanocomposite AgNPs-PVA membranes are characterized using scanning electron microscope (SEM), Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The pervaporation tests of our new AgNPs-PVA membranes show good results since at a higher temperature and higher ethanol concentration in the feed, the prepared membranes are highly permeable for the water having stable selectivity values and therefore our membranes show better performance compared to that of the other PVA-based nanocomposite membranes.