Abstract
Biodegradable polymers are a green alternative to apply as the base membrane materials in versatile processes. In this study, two dense membranes were made from biodegradable PGS (poly(glycerol sebacate)) and APS (poly(1,3-diamino-2-hydroxypropane-co-polyol sebacate)), respectively. The prepared membranes were characterized by FE-SEM, AFM, ATR-FTIR, TGA, DSC, water contact angle, and degree of swelling, in comparison with the PDMS (polydimethylpolysiloxane) membrane. In the pervaporation process for five organic solvent/water systems at 37 °C, both biodegradable membranes exhibited higher separation factors for ethanol/water and acetic acid/water separations, while the PDMS membrane attained better effectiveness in the other three systems. In particular, a positive relationship between the separation factor and the swelling ratio of organic solvent to water (DSo/DSw) was noticed. In spite of their biodegradability, the stability of both PGS and APS membranes was not deteriorated on ethanol/water pervaporation for one month. Furthermore, these two biodegradable membranes were applied in the pervaporation of simulated ABE (acetone-butanol-ethanol) fermentation solution, and the results were comparable with those reported in the literature.
Highlights
Membrane separation has been a persuasive technology utilized broadly in industrial separation processes
Two kinds of dense membranes made from biodegradable poly(glycerol sebacate) (PGS) and poly(1,3-diamino-2-hydroxypropane-co-polyol sebacate) (APS) [44,45] were tested in the pervaporation process to investigate their effectiveness on separating several individual organic solvents from water
Two biodegradable polymeric membranes PGS and APS were successfully applied in the pervaporation of five organic solvent/water systems
Summary
Membrane separation has been a persuasive technology utilized broadly in industrial separation processes. [3,7,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29] Inorganic membranes, such as graphene, zeolite, metal organic frameworks (MOFs), and ceramic materials (e.g., titania, alumina, zirconia, silicalite, etc.) can be used for pervaporation [3,8,30,31,32,33,34], but they are used less often due to the high production expense. Two kinds of dense membranes made from biodegradable poly(glycerol sebacate) (PGS) and poly(1,3-diamino-2-hydroxypropane-co-polyol sebacate) (APS) (easy to synthesize from glycerol and sebacic acid, inexpensive, nontoxic, and with good mechanical properties) [44,45] were tested in the pervaporation process to investigate their effectiveness on separating several individual organic solvents (ethanol, isopropanol, n-butanol, acetone, and acetic acid) from water. A more practical application on the pervaporation of simulated ABE (acetone-butanol-ethanol) fermentation solution for PGS and APS membranes was examined in this work
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