(417h) Transport Behaviour of Alkanes and Aromatic through Polysulfone/Date Pit Mixed-Matrix Membrane – an Investigation for Separation Potential

Naturally occurring composites are a new set of materials that are currently generating interest in varieties of applications. Date pit is a member of this set of green materials. The presence of cellulose, lignin and hemicelluloses in date pit constitutes varieties of advantages in its application in separation processes. Thus, the objective of this study is to investigate the potential of date pit based mixed-matrix membrane for separation of alkanes and aromatic mixtures. Polysulfone based mixed-matrix membranes containing date pits of different loading (0 - 5%) were prepared using the dry-wet phase inversion technique. The resulting membranes were characterized using SEM, XRD and transport properties tests. The transport properties were evaluated in terms of permeability, solubility, diffusivity and porosity using n-hexane, C-15, C-30 and Toluene. Porosity was found to increase by about 11% for membrane with 5 wt% date pit as compared to pure polysulfone membrane. Permeability of n-hexane, C-15, and C-30 through the prepared membranes are in the range of 0.021 â?? 0.18, 0.85 â??2.36 and 0.34â?? 1.61 x 10^-7cm²/s, respectively. All the composite membranes were soluble in toluene and hence cannot be used to separate mixtures containing toluene. However, the mixed-matrix membrane was observed to possess some separation potential for mixtures of alkanes.