A Drying-Free, Water-Based Process for Fabricating Mixed-Matrix Membranes with Outstanding Pervaporation Performance.
Despite much progress in the development of mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) for many advanced applications, the synthesis of MMMs without particle agglomeration or phase separation at high nanofiller loadings is still challenging. In this work, we synthesized nanoporous zeolitic imidazole framework (ZIF-8) nanoparticles with a particle size of 60 nm and a pore size of 0.34 nm in water and directly added them into an aqueous solution of the organic polymer poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) without an intermediate drying process. This approach led to a high-quality PVA/ZIF-8 MMM with enhanced performance in ethanol dehydration by pervaporation. The permeability of this MMM is three times higher than that of pristine PVA, and the separation factor is nearly nine times larger than that of pristine PVA. The significantly improved separation performance was attributed to the increase in the fractional free volume in the membranes.
Department of Chemical Engineering, National Taiwan University, No. 1, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Road, Taipei, 10617, Taiwan.
Yu-Heng
YH
Deng
Department of Chemical Engineering, National Taiwan University, No. 1, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Road, Taipei, 10617, Taiwan.
Jung-Tsai
JT
Chen
Department of Chemical Engineering, National Taiwan University, No. 1, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Road, Taipei, 10617, Taiwan.
Chia-Hao
CH
Chang
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, 117585, Singapore.
Kuo-Sung
KS
Liao
Department of Chemical Engineering, National Taiwan University, No. 1, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Road, Taipei, 10617, Taiwan. kuolun@ntu.edu.tw.
Kuo-Lun
KL
Tung
Australian Institute for Innovative Materials (AIIM), University of Wollongong, Squires Way, North Wollongong, NSW, 2500, Australia.
William E
WE
Price
Australian Institute for Innovative Materials (AIIM), University of Wollongong, Squires Way, North Wollongong, NSW, 2500, Australia.|International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (MANA), National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), 1-1 Namiki, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-0044, Japan.
Yusuke
Y
Yamauchi
Department of Chemical Engineering, National Taiwan University, No. 1, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Road, Taipei, 10617, Taiwan. kevinwu@ntu.edu.tw.
Kevin C-W
0000-0003-0590-1396
KC
Wu
ethanol dehydration; mixed-matrix membranes; pervaporation; polymers; zeolites