Improving hydraulic permeability, mechanical properties, and chemical functionality of cellulose acetate-based membranes by co-polymerization with tetraethyl orthosilicate and 3-(aminopropyl)triethoxysilane

Composite cellulose acetate (CA) membranes are widely used but their multiphase nature results in additive losses, poor mechanical strength, low chemical resistance and thermal stability, limiting their separation/purification yields. To overcome this, we fabricated monophasic hybrid membranes using a modified phase inversion technique, where tetraethylorthosilicate and 3-(aminopropyl)triethoxysilane were added to the CA casting solution. The resulting co-polymerization between CA, silanols and amine-functionalized silica groups, through solgel chemistry, was proved by ATR-FTIR (1118 cm-1, ?(Si?O?C)). The presence of propyl-amine groups increases the hydraulic permeability (3?), the rupture elongation (?1.5), and decreases the Young modulus (?1/ 2), due to the disruption of the CA-silica 3D network. For high propyl-amine contents this behaviour is reversed due to intensive cross-linking between CA-silica chains (decrease in 903 cm-1, ?(CH3COOC-)). The addition of silica- and amine-based structures to the CA framework increases the system degrees of freedom, opening the door to the design of new CA membranes.