SUZ-4 zeolite interlayer enhanced thin-film composite pervaporation membrane for ethanol dehydration

• Published in: Separation and purification technology Vol. 314; p. 123587
• Main Authors: Lin, Yu-Fei, Fang, Yin-Xin, Xu, Zhen-Liang, Taymazov, Dovletjan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01.06.2023
• Subjects: Ceramic substrate; Ethanol dehydration; Interlayer; SUZ-4 zeolite; Thin-film composite; SUZ-4 zeolite; Ceramic substrate; Ethanol dehydration; Interlayer; Thin-film composite
• ISSN: 1383-5866; 1873-3794
• DOI: 10.1016/j.seppur.2023.123587

Some of the polyamide clusters were removed and small amounts of polyamide were produced from the reaction of the EDA and the TMC with incomplete consumption in the first layer, which filled the defect and facilitated the production of the second layer of polyamide. The resulting membrane with excellent performance for ethanol dehydration had a special structure in which the inner layer was a nesting of polyamide and zeolite crystals, while the outer layer was a polyamide layer wrapping the inner layer. [Display omitted] •The SUZ-4 zeolite interlayer was involved in the membrane preparation for the first time.•The TFC membrane held a separation layer with two-layer structure on ceramic substrate.•The outer layer is a polyamide layer and the inner layer is nested with polyamide and zeolite.•These membranes exhibited excellent ethanol dehydration performance. SUZ-4 zeolite is a needle-like porous material with potential in separation. By incorporating a SUZ-4 zeolite interlayer on the macroporous ceramic hollow fibers to remedy the defects on the surface, thin-film composite (TFC) membranes with better pervaporation (PV) performance were expected to be prepared by interfacial polymerization (IP) processes. Through relevant experiments and characterization, high performance SUZ-4 zeolite interlayer enhanced TFC membranes were obtained by incorporating a zeolite interlayer and undergoing two-pass IP process. In addition, the TFC membrane had a special structure in which the inner layer was a nesting of polyamide and zeolite crystals, while the outer layer was a polyamide layer wrapping the inner layer. The structure of the inner layer similar to the mixed matrix membrane allowed the properties of the SUZ-4 zeolite to be utilized, whose performance was significantly better than the TFC membrane without the zeolite interlayer. After further optimization, the SUZ-4 enhanced TFC membrane exhibited a flux of 3.18 ± 0.3 kg/(m2·h) with a separation factor of 1056 ± 150 when applied to the pervaporation of 90 wt% ethanol dehydration at 60 °C. Moreover, the developed novel TFC membranes maintained good stability, which indicated these membranes possess great potential for pervaporation dehydration.