Efficient Separation on Vanillin Operated with Permeability Performance of Hollow Fiber Membranes Embedded Vanillin Imprinted Polymer Particles

Abstract

Vanillin separation was efficiently enhanced when vanillin-imprinted polymer particles were embedded in hollow fiber membranes. Vanillin-imprinted poly(ethersulfone) hollow fiber membranes were prepared using a dry-wet spinning method. In the preparation process of the imprinted hollow fiber membranes, the vanillin-imprinted polymer particles composed of vanillin methacrylate and methacrylic acid in divinylbenzene segments were used and embedded in poly(ethersulfone) hollow fiber membranes with different contents of the vanillin-imprinted particles at 0, 2.5, 5.0, 10, and 15 wt %. Permeability of 100 mM aqueous solutions containing each vanillin and its analog toward the imprinted membrane was examined in permeation flux and separation factor. The value of the separation factor was 32 for 10 wt % loading with 93 L/(m2 h) flux, while for 2.5 wt %, the values of separation factor and the permeation flux were 9.5 and 22 L/(m2 h), respectively. This experimental evidence indicated the importance of an alternative tailormade separation of vanillin mixture.