A Drying‐Free,Water‐Based Process for Fabricating Mixed‐Matrix Membranes with Outstanding Pervaporation Performance |
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| Authors: | Yu‐Heng Deng Dr. Jung‐Tsai Chen Chia‐Hao Chang Dr. Kuo‐Sung Liao Prof. Kuo‐Lun Tung Prof. William E. Price Prof. Dr. Yusuke Yamauchi Prof. Kevin C.‐W. Wu |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Department of Chemical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan;2. Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore;3. Australian Institute for Innovative Materials (AIIM), University of Wollongong, North Wollongong, NSW, Australia;4. International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (MANA), National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Ibaraki, Japan |
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| Abstract: | 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. |
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| Keywords: | ethanol dehydration mixed-matrix membranes pervaporation polymers zeolites |
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