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Ultrasonic treatment of polyacrylic acid sodium/NaA zeolite hybrid membranes for the pervaporation dehydration of ethanol
Author(s) -
Wei Ping,
Qu Xin Ying,
Dong Hang,
Zhang Lin,
Chen Huanlin,
Gao Congjie
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of applied polymer science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.575
H-Index - 166
eISSN - 1097-4628
pISSN - 0021-8995
DOI - 10.1002/app.39685
Subject(s) - pervaporation , membrane , sonication , polyacrylic acid , materials science , zeolite , crystallization , chemical engineering , dispersion (optics) , lamellar structure , casting , scanning electron microscope , chemistry , chromatography , composite material , organic chemistry , polymer , biochemistry , permeation , catalysis , physics , engineering , optics
Ultrasonics was used to improve the dispersion of NaA zeolite in polyacrylic acid sodium (PAAS) membranes. The effect of ultrasonication time on the dispersion of NaA zeolite in the membranes, the membrane structure, and performance were investigated. The casting solution and resulting membranes were characterized by viscosity measurement, polarizing optical microscopy (POM), scanning electron microscopy, and X‐ray diffraction (XRD). With increasing ultrasonication time, the viscosity of the casting solution decreased as the chain entanglements decreased. The POM and XRD results showed that crystallization occurred in the PAAS membrane after ultrasonic processing. A more homogeneous morphology was obtained due to improvement in the dispersion of zeolite under ultrasonic treatment for 0.5–1.0 h. As a result, the separation performance was enhanced. The water/ethanol separation factor increased from 176.2 to 577.8. However, the relative separation factor decreased when the ultrasonic time exceeded 2.5 h, due to the appearance of a lamellar structure. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 130: 3979–3984, 2013