Chemically and Thermally Crosslinked PVA-Based Membranes: Effect on Swelling and Transport Behavior.

Rynkowska Rynkowska,Marais Marais,Kujawski Kujawski,Kujawa Kujawa,Fatyeyeva Fatyeyeva

doi:10.3390/polym11111799

Abstract

The novel poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA)-based membranes were prepared using the two-step crosslinking approach: the chemical crosslinking of PVA using sulfosuccinic acid (SSA) (0–50 wt.%) and the thermal treatment (120–160 °C). The membrane composition and crosslinking temperature were optimized in terms of the mechanical and transport properties. The FTIR-ATR analysis revealed that the increase of the SSA concentration and crosslinking temperature resulted in the rise of the ester bond bands intensity due to the esterification reaction between PVA and SSA. As a consequence, the PVA-based membrane with 50 wt % SSA and crosslinked at 140 °C showed the reduced Young’s modulus (from 1266.2 MPa to 1.4 MPa) and elongation at break (from 316% to 66%) in comparison with the pure PVA membrane. The studied swelling behavior of the obtained membranes revealed significantly higher water sorption than that in methanol and propal-2-ol whatever the crosslinking temperature. The performed studies provide a new way of tailoring the membrane physicochemical properties, in particular, the surface hydrophilicity. In addition, the obtained results are crucial for the design and elaboration of the polymer membranes for the pervaporative separation of the liquid-liquid mixtures, in particular, for the alcohol dehydration.

Highlights

Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) is a semi-crystalline water-soluble synthetic polymer widely used in industry due to its multiple features including non-toxicity, biocompatibility, and biodegradability properties, as well as its high barrier properties towards the oxygen and aroma [1,2,3,4]
In order to reveal the efficiency of the crosslinking reaction between poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and sulfosuccinic acid (SSA) (Figure 1), crosslinked poly(vinyl alcohol) and sulfosuccinic acid (PVA-SSA) membranes showed significant differences compared to the FTIR spectrum of the the FTIR-ATR analysis was applied
The increase of the water contact angles by 15◦ and 7◦ with the SSA concentration and the annealing temperature increasing, respectively, was noted, confirming the hydrophilic character of the PVA-SSA membrane surface

Summary

Introduction

Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) is a semi-crystalline water-soluble synthetic polymer widely used in industry due to its multiple features including non-toxicity, biocompatibility, and biodegradability properties, as well as its high barrier properties towards the oxygen and aroma [1,2,3,4]. It has good film/gel-forming, adhesive, and emulsifying properties [3,5,6]. Different crosslinking agents have been already used, such as glutaraldehyde (GA) [10,11,12,13], glyoxal [14], maleic acid [15], citric acid [16], trisodium trimetaphosphate (STMP) [17], sodium hexametaphosphate (SHMP) [17], dianhydrides [18], succinic acid (SA) [19], and sulfosuccinic acid (SSA) [19,20]

Objectives

Results

Conclusion