Polyvinyl alcohol/fumed silica nano-composite mixed matrix membranes for pervaporation dehydration of isopropanol

Pervaporation (PV) is one of the recent processes used for dehydration of alcohols. In this study, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) was used to separate water from isopropanol. In order to improve performance of PVA membrane, fumed nano silica was added to the polymeric network. Using the silica in the polymeric network enhanced the membrane flux from 0.4900 to 1.3350 kg m-2h-1, while slightly declined the membrane selectivity from 170.000 to 158.652. The fumed silica made the polymeric network porous and this facilitated permeation of the both molecules

Keywords:

Mixed Matrix Membrane , Fumed silica , Nano particles , Pervaporation