Separation of phenol from aqueous solutions using PDMS/PES composite membrane by pervaporation

Separation of phenol from wastewater by pervaporation using PDMS composite membranes on a PES support layer was investigated. The effects of feedconcentration, operating temperature, and crosslinker concentration on the separation performance were studied in terms of permeation flux and selectivity. The membraneswere prepared by varying the crosslinker (tetraethylorthosilicate, TEOS) concentration. The permeation flux of phenol was increased as the feed concentration was increased. It was also shown that an increase in temperature increases both the phenol flux andselectivity. By increasing the crosslinker concentration in the polymeric solution from 0.1 to 0.3, the selectivity factor of the membrane was increased from 8.2 to 14.7 while the total flux was decreased from 0.72 to 0.43 kg/m2.h. The results suggested that TEOS has a tailoring effect on the conformation of polymeric chains, which affects the network formation.

Keywords:

pervaporation , phenolic wastewater , composite membrane , crosslinking effect