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A selective organosilica membrane for ethyl acetate dehydration by pervaporation
Author(s) -
Raza Waseem,
Jianhua Yang,
Wang Jiaxuan,
Saulat Hammad,
Wang Lei,
Lu Jingming,
Zhang Yan
Publication year - 2021
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.50942
Subject(s) - pervaporation , membrane , materials science , dehydration , chemical engineering , ethyl acetate , selectivity , ternary operation , chromatography , polymer , organic chemistry , chemistry , composite material , permeation , catalysis , biochemistry , computer science , engineering , programming language
Organosilica bis(triethoxysilyl) ethane (BTESE) membranes were explored for pervaporation dehydration of binary and ternary mixtures of ethyl acetate (EA) by undiluted sol coating combined with flash firing. Three BTESE membranes (M1, M2, and M3) were fabricated on macroporous supports by varying BTESE concentrations (0.5, 2.5, and 5 wt% BTESE, respectively) in polymer sols. The membranes were characterized by DLS, SEM, FTIR, XRD, contact angle, AFM, and pervaporation performance to discuss the effect of the BTESE contents in the polymer sol on the formation and dehydration performance of resulting organosilica membranes. It was found that 5 wt% loading of BTESE led to a highly selective membrane for dehydration of EA/H 2 O mixture. Among the synthesized membranes, M3 delivered flux of 0.84 ± 0.05 kg.m −2 .h −1 with a selectivity of >10,000 for EA/H 2 O mixture (98/2 wt%) at 60°C. The time course of pervaporation dehydration for the EA/H 2 O mixture (95/5 wt%) confirms the stability of BTESE membrane in the investigated time period of 120 h. Further, the membrane exhibited excellent selectivity larger than 10,000 for separation of ternary mixtures (90/2/8 wt%) of ethyl acetate/ethanol/water and n‐propyl acetate/isopropanol/water respectively, the composition of which is similar to the top product of the distillation column used in the industrial esterification process. The best separation performance and excellent acid stability of BTESE membranes in this study suggest that the simple synthesis protocol of undiluted sol coating and flash firing will provide a cost‐effective, quick, and efficient synthesis route for practical membrane based applications.