AF2400/polyketone composite OSRO membrane for organic solvent mixture separation

Abstract

An organic solvent reverse osmosis (OSRO) membrane was fabricated by spin-coating a copolymer of perfluoro-2,2-dimethyl-1,3-dioxole and tetrafluoroethylene (Teflon® AF2400) onto a polyketone support membrane. The purpose of this research was to develop an OSRO membrane with different separation properties from a polyamide membrane already published in the literature. The prepared membranes had a dense and smooth active layer on the support membrane. In the pure organic solvent permeation tests, aliphatic hydrocarbons (nonpolar solvents) and aromatic hydrocarbons (nonpolar solvents) permeated through the membrane, whereas almost no alcohol permeation (polar solvents) was observed under our evaluation conditions. The separation performances of the nonpolar/polar solvent mixture systems and nonpolar/nonpolar solvent mixture systems were investigated. In the separation of 1,3,5-triisopropylbenzene from toluene, a separation factor of 31.3 with a toluene permeance of 0.07 LMH/bar was obtained, suggesting the successful separation of nonpolar organic solvents from a mixture of nonpolar solvents.