Organic‐Inorganic Hybrid Membranes for Removal of Benzene from an Aqueous Solution by Pervaporation

Abstract

Summary: Preparation of organic‐inorganic hybrid membranes and their pervaporation permeation and separation characteristics for an aqueous solution of 0.05 wt.‐% benzene are described. In this study, we prepared organic‐inorganic hybrid membranes by the sol‐gel reaction of tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) as an inorganic component with poly(methyl methacrylate‐co‐vinyltriethoxysilane) (P(MMA‐co‐VTES)) and poly(butyl methacrylate‐co‐vinyltriethoxysilane) (P(BMA‐co‐VTES)) as organic components. When an aqueous solution of dilute benzene (0.05 wt.‐%) was permeated through the P(MMA‐co‐VTES)/TEOS and P(BMA‐co‐VTES)/TEOS hybrid membranes, the benzene concentration in the permeate through all hybrid membranes was higher than that in the feed solution. This result demonstrates that these hybrid membranes are benzene selective for an aqueous solution containing dilute benzene. The benzene/water selectivity of the P(BMA‐co‐VTES)/TEOS hybrid membrane was about 20 times higher than that of the P(MMA‐co‐VTES)/TEOS hybrid membrane. Specifically, the P(BMA‐co‐VTES)/TEOS hybrid membrane with a TEOS content of 75 mol‐% showed the highest benzene/water selectivity. The benzene/water selectivity of the hybrid membranes depended significantly on the cross‐linked structures formed by the sol‐gel reaction of VTES and TEOS.

Pervaporation Characteristics in Removal of Benzene from Water through Polystyrene-Poly (Dimethylsiloxane) IPN Membranes

“…It is well-known that the chemical structure of a polymer membrane significantly affects the sorption of the permeants into the membrane in the sorption process and the physical structure strongly influences the diffusion of the permeants into the membrane during the diffusion process [26]. Next, the physical structure of the PSt-PDMS IPN membranes was investigated.…”

Water/Ethanol Selectivity of New Organic‐Inorganic Hybrid Membranes Fabricated from Poly(vinyl alcohol) and an Oligosilane

“…[15][16][17] By using the sol-gel method, it is possible to homogeneously hybridize the organic and inorganic components. We have previously prepared organic-inorganic hybrid membranes by sol-gel reactions of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and tetraethoxysilane (TEOS), [18] poly[(vinyl alcohol)-co-(acrylic acid)] [P(VA-co-AA)] and TEOS, [19] quaternized chitosan and TEOS, [20,21] copolymers of butyl methacrylate and vinyl triethoxysilane [P(BMA-co-VTES)], and TEOS [22,23] to improve polymer membrane selectivities. The organic-inorganic hybrid membrane selectivities were significantly enhanced.…”

Studies on the structural heterogeneities of poly(dimethylsiloxane) networks modified with poly(phenylsilsesquioxane)s using small-angle X-ray scattering and dynamical mechanical analysis

“…Another classical example of the importance of the morphology is represented by the block copolymers [6]. Organicinorganic hybrid materials and polysiloxane networks have been often used as membranes for different applications [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]. For many systems it is possible to correlate some properties of the membrane, such as swelling, permeability coefficients to the morphological features of these materials [17,20].…”