Facile fabrication of Al-fumarate mixed matrix membranes for azeotrope mixture separation
Abstract
Pervaporation has emerged as a promising technology for the separation of methanol azeotropes. However, developing membrane material to enhance the separation performance remains crucial. In this study, aluminum fumarate (Al-fu) particles were successfully incorporated into polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) via in-situ growth method, creating mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) on a porous polyacrylonitrile substrate. These Al-fu MMMs were then used for the separation of the methanol azeotropes. Compared to pure PVA membranes, the Al-fu MMMs exhibited a significant increase in both the separation factor and flux when separating a 20/80?wt% methanol/dimethyl carbonate mixture at 40?°C. The separation factor increased from 9.2 to 13.2, while the flux increased from 376.8?g·m?2·h?1 to 928.2?g·m?2·h?1. This enhancement can be attributed to the synergetic effects of size sieving through the pore windows and preferential adsorption of polar solvent molecules by the Al-fu MMMs. Furthermore, the low cost of both Al-fu and PVA, coupled with the facile membrane preparation process, renders this strategy economically viable and practical. Consequently, this approach offers a promising avenue for the development of efficient pervaporation membranes for the separation of azeotropic mixtures.