Transport of Small Molecules through Polyphenylene Oxide Membranes Modified by Fullerene

Abstract

Homogeneous membranes based on fullerene-polyphenylene oxide compositions containing up to 2 wt% fullerene C 60 were prepared. The effect of fullerene addition on PPO transport properties was studied in gas separation and pervaporation processes. Permeability coefficients of H 2 , O 2 , N 2 , CH 4 , and CO 2 were measured; a correlation between gas transport properties and membrane free volume was established. Pervaporation properties were studied for the system with ethyl acetate synthesis reaction: quaternary system ethanol-acetic acid-water-ethyl acetate and some constituent binary and ternary mixtures. Pervaporation in binary systems, ethanol -water and ethyl acetate-water was considered with the use of the data on sorption capacities and interaction parameters. In pervaporation of a quaternary reacting mixture, the permeate containing essentially ethyl acetate was obtained. Results show that membranes with fullerene additives exhibit improved transport properties.

Polyvinyl alcohol membranes modified by low-hydroxylated fullerenol C60(OH)12

“…Butanol, npropanol, ethanol, n-propyl acetate, acetic acid, and maleic acid were purchased by "Vecton" (Russia). Lowhydroxylated fullerenol C 60 (OH) 12 (Fullerene Technologies, Russia) was used for PVA modification.…”

“…In our previous work the methods for the preparation of the composite PVA-fullerenol C 60 (OH) [22][23][24] and some physicochemical and structural characteristics of the composite were described [24]. In this paper we use low-hydroxylated fullerenol C 60 (OH) 12 that was 3 obtained by the alkaline hydrolysis of fullerene bromide. This method is faster and less expensive when compared to the method of preparing C 60 (OH) [22][23][24] from C 60 and preserves more of the electronic structure.…”

“…One successful method has been the incorporation of carbon nanoparticles. Typically, modifiers such as fullerene [12,13], carbon nanotubes [14][15][16], functionalized carbon nanotubes [17][18][19][20], and graphene oxide [21][22][23] have been used. There are a limited number of studies on the introduction of fullerenes to polymer membranes due to the low solubility of fullerenes in organic solvents, resulting in agglomeration within membranes.…”

Polysulfone ultrafiltration membranes impregnated with silver nanoparticles show improved biofouling resistance and virus removal

“…Fullerene C6o and astralene (a material that contains between 20 and 90% by weight nanoparticles) were added to ultrafiltration membranes (Ong et al, 2006;Polotskaya et al, 2007). These membranes experienced good water flux restoration after contact with a protein mixture (compared to the control), and a decrease in sorption capacity for proteins with no significant change in the membrane pore structure (Polotskaya et al, 2007). Additionally, fullerenes have been added to polymeric membranes to increase the rejection of estrogenic compounds (Ong et al, 2006).…”

“…C6o was added to membranes for the catalytic destruction of estrogenic compounds (Polotskaya et al, 2007). Additionally, CNT deposited onto a surface have been shown to inactivate E. coli through puncturing of the cell membrane .…”