Performance enhancement of a polydimethylsiloxane membrane for effective n-butanol pervaporation by bonding multi-silyl-functional MCM-41

RSC Advances Pub Date: 2018-01-30 DOI: 10.1039/C7RA11043J

Abstract

In the current work, MCM-41/polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) mixed matrix membrane (MMM) was prepared for effective n-butanol pervaporation from a model aqueous solution. In order to improve the compatibility between MCM-41 and PDMS, different types of silane coupling agents including n-propyltrimethoxysilane (PTMS), n-octyltrimethoxysilane (OTMS), n-dodecyltrimethoxysilane (DTMS) and n-hexadecyltrimethoxysilane (HDTMS) were used to modify the MCM-41. The results showed that the highest n-butanol separation performance was achieved by bonding 20?wt% of PTMS-modified MCM-41 with PDMS. Under these conditions, total flux of 1476 g m?2 h?1 was obtained when separating a 1.5 wt% n-butanol aqueous solution at 55 °C. The total flux increased by nearly 40% compared to the pure PDMS membrane with no obvious changes of the n-butanol separation factor at the same time. The curing process of the casting solution was also significantly improved after MCM-41 modification.

Graphical abstract: Performance enhancement of a polydimethylsiloxane membrane for effective n-butanol pervaporation by bonding multi-silyl-functional MCM-41
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