Pervaporation of Ethanol/Water Mixtures Using Novel Hydrophobic Membranes Based on Concentrated Emulsion Polymerization

A pervaporation membrane was prepared via the concentrated emulsion polymerization method. The concentrated emulsion formed was pre-polymerized, after which a mixture of another hydrophobic monomer, a crosslinker and an initiator were added with stirring to the system. The gel formed was located between two glass plates and subjected to polymerization. The membrane copied the structure of its precursor concentrated emulsion and composed of closely packed latexes that squeezed each other. The micro-channel among the latexes provided additional pathways for the permeates. The morphologies of the concentrated emulsion and membrane were examined via optical and electron microscopies. The pervaporation performance of the membrane in the extraction of ethanol from ethanol/water mixtures was investigated. In certain ranges of composition, the flux and selectivity simultaneously increased.