Abstract:
Hydrophobic ZIF-67 incorporated hybrid poly(ether-block-amide) (PEBA) membranes were prepared in order to improve their pervaporation performance for the recovery of ethyl acetate from aqueous solutions. The physical and chemical properties of ZIF-67 and ZIF-67/PEBA hybrid membranes were studied by SEM, EDS, contact angle measurement, FTIR, XRD, TGA and swelling experiments. The effects of ZIF-67 concentration, feed concentration and temperature on the membrane performance was systematically investigated, which revealed only physical interaction between ZIF-67 and PEBA matrix, and the hydrophobicity of the ZIF-67/PEBA hybrid membranes was higher than that of the pristine PEBA membrane. With the increase of ZIF-67 loading content, the total flux decreased initially and then increased while the maximum separation factor was obtained at 5% ZIF-67 loading. With increasing feed concentration and feed temperature, the total flux and separation factor increased with the maximum values of 2 299 g·m
-2·h
-1 and 122, respectively. This study can provide necessary basic information and theoretical basis for the industrialization of pervaporation techniques for ethyl acetate separation from aqueous solutions.