Speciality polymeric membranes .6. Pervaporation separation of benzene/cyclohexane mixtures through nylon 6-graft-poly(ethyl methacrylate) membranes

A novel pervaporation membrane was prepared by radical graft polymerization of ethyl methacrylate onto Nylon 6. The permselectivity toward benzene was increased by the introduction of poly(ethyl methacrylate) on to a Nylon 6 membrane. The membrane from Nylon 6-graft-poly(ethyl methacrylate), whose (PEMA)/(N6) ratio was 0.06, gave a separation factor over 220 toward benzene at the weight fraction of benzene in the feed of ca 0.1. From the pervaporation data and sorption experiments, it was made clear that both the solubility selectivity and the diffusivity selectivity are preferable to benzene. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd