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Tunable physicochemical properties of PVA nanocomposite membranes for enhanced pervaporation performance
Author(s) -
Jose Thomasukutty,
George Soney C.,
Thomas Sabu
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
polymer engineering and science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.503
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1548-2634
pISSN - 0032-3888
DOI - 10.1002/pen.24637
Subject(s) - pervaporation , permeance , membrane , permeation , materials science , chemical engineering , selectivity , nanocomposite , sorption , contact angle , vinyl alcohol , polymer chemistry , polymer , composite material , organic chemistry , chemistry , adsorption , biochemistry , engineering , catalysis
This study reveals the effect of hydrophilic bentonite nanoclay on the pervaporation separation of azeotropic composition of water and 1,4‐dioxane. The permselectivity of the membrane increased with filler concentration and was selective toward water at minimum filler loading. The intrinsic properties such as membrane permeance and selectivity increased with the concentration of hydrophilic bentonite nanoclay and crosslinked poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) with 2 wt% nanoclay membranes showed intrinsic selectivity 443 (532% increment than that of pristine membranes) with water permeance 4,675 gas permeation unit which is significantly higher compared to earlier literature. X‐ray diffraction and Transmission electron microscopy showed the well exfoliated and distributed nanoclay structure in the crosslinked PVA matrix. Interaction of PVA with nanoclay and the hydrophilic character of the membranes were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectra and contact angle analysis, respectively. Interestingly, in this work the membranes exhibited simultaneous increment in both permeation flux and selectivity with filler loading, rather than the usual inverse trend of flux and selectivity. A predictive model of pervaporation was used to explain the pervaporation behavior and it showed good agreement with experimental results for overall pervaporation performance, preferential sorption of water, and hydrophilic‐hydrophobic nature of the membranes. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 58:849–858, 2018. © 2017 Society of Plastics Engineers