Asymmetric 5-sulfosalicylic acid-PVA catalytic pervaporation membranes for the process intensification in the synthesis of ethyl acetate

Abstract

A kind of novel catalytic pervaporation membrane was fabricated for the process intensification of the synthesis of ethyl acetate. Firstly, asymmetric PVA pervaporation membranes (AMs) were prepared by non-solvent induced phase separation (NIPS) method, then the asymmetric membranes were modified with 5-sulfosalicylic acid for the grafting of sulfonic acid group to form the asymmetric 5-sulfosalicylic acid - PVA catalytic pervaporation membranes (CMs). For the separation performances of CMs, in the pervaporation of 2 wt% water - ethyl acetate, water flux and separation factor of CMs with the 8 wt% PVA could reach 756.2 g/(m2·h) and 592.87 respectively. For the catalytic performance of CMs, final acetic acid conversion rate reached 63.5% in the synthesis of ethyl acetate. Furthermore, for the coupling experiments of catalysis with pervaporation, the conversion rate was 20% higher than that of ordinary catalytic reaction and the CMs showed excellent reusability that the conversion rate still reached 87% after 5 runs.