Study on swelling behavior and pervaporation properties of AA–MMA–BA copolymers for separation of methanol/MTBE/C5 mixtures

In this study, the copolymers with different ratios of AA(acrylic acid)–MMA(methyl methacrylate)–BA (butyl acrylate) are synthesized to prepare pervaporation membrane for the separation of methanol/MTBE (methyl tert‐butyl ether)/C₅ mixtures. Swelling experiment of these copolymers in pure methanol, MTBE, C₅, and methanol/MTBE mixtures are carried out, respectively. The results show that there is a strong interaction between MTBE and copolymer with high content of BA. The pervaporation characteristics of the membranes prepared with different copolymer are measured in the separation of methanol/MTBE mixture. The experimental results show that the pervaporation ability changes with swelling degree in the same direction. The copolymers are characterized by FTIR. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 87: 2267–2271, 2003