Dehydration of isopropanol by PVA-APTEOS/TEOS nanocomposite membranes

In the present work, dehydration of isopropanol was investigated by novel organic-inorganic nanocomposite membranes which were prepared through sol-gel reaction of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) with gamma-aminopropyl-triethoxysilane (APTEOS) and tetraethoxysilane (TEOS). The PVA chains were crosslinked by mixing silane coupling agents. This reaction between polymer chains and silanols agents could control degree of swelling of the nanocomposite membranes in aqueous isopropanol (IPA) solutions. The membranes were characterized by SEM and ATIR. Effects of APTEOS content in the membranes, feed concentration and temperature on pervaporation (PV) performance were investigated. It was found out that separation factor and permeation flux increase with increasing APTEOS content in the membranes. Arrhenius-type relationship was used for describing the temperature dependence of permeation flux. It was also found out that separation factor decreases with increasing temperature. (C) 2010 The Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.