PREPARATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF PERVAPORATION MEMBRANES OF ZSM-5 ZEOLITE INCORPORATED CHITOSAN

Abstract

ZSM-5 zeolite-incorporated chitosan membranes were prepared by the solution blending method. The membranes were characterized with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to assess their surface morphology. The results showed that zeolite was uniformly distributed in the membrane matrix and the membranes were free of possible defects. Sorption studies indicated that the degree of swelling increased with the zeolite content, increasing, and the separation selectivity of dimethyl carbonate (DMC)/methanol mixtures was dominated by solubility selectivity rather than diffusivity selectivity. Finally, the effects of zeolite content and operating temperature on pervaporation properties were investigated. With increasing the zeolite content,the permeation flux of the membranes increased significantly. From the temperature-dependent permeation values, the Arrhenius activation parameters were estimated. The pervaporation results indicated that the membranes incorporated with the ZSM-5 zeolite exhibited better separation proper-ties for DMC/methanol mixtures comparing with homogeneous chitosan membranes.