(376ax) Hydrosilylation-Based UV-Curable PDMS Pervaporation Membranes for N-Butanol Recovery

Pervaporation (PV) using a membrane is the most attractive technology for the effective recovery or separation of organic compounds due to its energy and cost effectiveness compared to other conventional separation methods. Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) has been the most widely used PV membrane material for the alcohol recovery. The PDMS membrane is typically prepared using casting method followed by a heat-curing process. However, the heat-curing process is time-consuming and its batch-wise nature requires a large-scale equipment for the commercialization. In this regard, a UV-curing process is beneficial since its curing rate is fast even at room temperature and it can be processed in a continuous manner. In this study, for the first time, we fabricated the PDMS-based PV membranes (pristine and mixed matrix membranes (MMM) containing silicalite-1) using a new class of hydrosilylation-based UV-curable PDMS for n-butanol recovery. The structures and separation performance of the prepared UV-cured PDMS membranes (UV-PDMS) were compared with those of conventional heat-cured PDMS membranes (Heat-PDMS). While there was no difference in PV performance between UV-PDMS and Heat-PDMS for the pristine membranes, the difference in PV performance was remarkable for the MMMs. Especially, for the silicalite-1 loading of 20 %, the UV-cured MMM exhibited an 58 % increase in flux with similar separation factor compared to the heat-cured MMM. This significant increase in flux was attributed to the unique structure of the UV-cured MMM having the increased surface roughness and loosely packed morphology.