Effect of nanoscale morphology on selective ethanol transport through block copolymer membranes

Jha, Ashish K.; Chen, Liang; Offeman, Richard D.; Balsara, Nitash P.

doi:10.1016/j.memsci.2011.02.043

Cited by 40 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…Pervaporation was performed in a laboratory bench test unit built by Sulzer Chemtech, Germany and described previously . A schematic is displayed in Figure .…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pervaporation of organic compounds from aqueous mixtures using polydimethylsiloxane‐containing block copolymer membranes

2015

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Pervaporation of aqueous mixtures of ethanol, acetone, butanol, isobutanol, and furfural through polystyrene-bpolydimethylsiloxane-b-polystyrene (SDS) triblock copolymer membranes is reported. These mixtures are important for biofuel production from lignocellulosic feedstocks. Feedstock depolymerization results in the formation of furfural which must be removed before fermentation. Ethanol, butanol, isobutanol, and acetone are important fermentation biofuels. The membrane selectivity of SDS is about unity over a wide range of concentrations of aqueous ethanol mixtures, similar to the membrane selectivity of crosslinked polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). The permeabilities of butanol, isobutanol, and furfural are larger than those of ethanol and acetone. The volatile organic compound permeability through SDS is similar to or higher than that through PDMS across a broad range of temperatures and feed concentrations is found. More selective and permeable membranes are needed to lower the cost of biofuel purification. The SDS membranes developed are but one step toward improved membranes. V C 2015 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 61: [2789][2790][2791][2792][2793][2794] 2015 Keywords: membrane materials, membrane separations, polymer properties, separation techniques IntroductionPervaporation is a membrane-based separation process in which a liquid feed mixture contacts one side of a membrane and a vacuum is applied to the opposite side. The pervaporative flux of a given species through a dense, nonporous membrane is driven by the resulting gradient in chemical potential. Volatile species are thermodynamically favored to permeate. The compounds in the liquid mixture permeate at different rates due to differences in membrane sorption, diffusion within the membrane, and thermodynamic driving forces. 1,2Pervaporation is a particularly attractive method of separation for processes in biofuels production. 3 In the production of biofuels from lignocellulose, cellulose and hemicellulose must be depolymerized to a product called hydrolysate, with sugars being a desirable end product. [4][5][6] The reactions employed in depolymerization are complex and result in numerous side products, such as furfural. 7,8 The sugars produced by depolymerization are converted by fermentation to useful fuel chemicals such as ethanol, butanol, isobutanol, and acetone. [9][10][11] In fact, pervaporation can be useful in both the depolymerization and fermentation processes. These volatile organic compounds (VOCs)-furfural, ethanol, butanol, isobutanol, and acetoneare inhibitory to fermentation. Furfural can be removed from hydrolysate by pervaporation. In situ pervaporation is a particularly attractive option for improving fermentation productivity, as it does not interfere with fermenting cells' activity, and has the potential to enable continuous biofuel production. 12,13 Traditional methods for removing VOCs, such as distillation, are not viable for in situ biofuel separation during fermentation due to harsh treatment conditions....

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“…Pervaporation was performed in a laboratory bench test unit built by Sulzer Chemtech, Germany and described previously . A schematic is displayed in Figure .…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pervaporation of organic compounds from aqueous mixtures using polydimethylsiloxane‐containing block copolymer membranes

2015

Self Cite

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“…Unfortunately, electrolyte membrane materials possessing high ionic conductivities often tend to lack the requisite mechanical strength for applications. In this context, significant interest has arisen in the use of ordered phases of multicomponent block copolymers, in which one or more of the blocks (glassy) serves to furnish mechanical strength to the membrane while the other “functional” (rubbery) block facilitates transport of ions and permeants . Inspired by the successes in the context of polymer electrolytes, other studies have extended this general idea to design alcohol separation membranes, fuel cells, and so forth …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the use of block copolymer membranes, the expectation is that the conductivity (or permeability) of the self‐assembled systems would be identical to that of the corresponding conducting polymer when normalized appropriately for the volume fraction of the blocks and the large scale orientational disorder of the self‐assembled morphologies . While such expectations have borne out in some results, a number of intriguing, nontrivial observations have also been noted.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of molecular weight and degree of segregation on local segmental dynamics of ordered block copolymers

Sethuraman

Pryamitsyn

Ganesan

2016

J. Polym. Sci. Part B: Polym. Phys.

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Experiments in the context of block copolymer electrolyte materials have observed intriguing dependence of the ionic conductivities upon the polymer molecular weight and the degree of segregation between the blocks. Such results have been partly rationalized by invoking the spatial extent of dynamical inhomogeneities that manifest in ordered phases of block copolymers comprised of a rubbery and a glassy block. Motivated by such observations, we use molecular dynamics simulations to study the extent of spatial inhomogeneities in segmental dynamics of lamellar diblock copolymer systems where the blocks possess different mobilities. We probed the local average relaxation times and the dynamical heterogeneities as a function of distance from the interface. Our results suggest that the relaxation times of rubbery segments are strongly influenced by both the spatial proximity to the interface and the relative mobility of the glassy segments. Scaling of our results indicate that the interfacial width of the ordered phases serves as the length scale underlying the spatial inhomogeneities in segmental dynamics of the fast monomers. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2016, 54, 859–864

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“…The PV processes reported are the recovery of volatile organic compounds, such as 1,1,1–trichloroethane (TCA) and trichloroethylene (TCE), and the removal of toluene and ethanol from diluted aqueous solutions. The obtained results are compared in terms of selectivity and flux with commercial membranes with particular emphasis on the performance and on the nanostructures 23–26…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nanostructured Poly(styrene‐b‐butadiene‐b‐styrene) (SBS) Membranes for the Separation of Nitrogen from Natural Gas

Buonomenna

Golemme

Tone

et al. 2012

Adv Funct Materials

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The preparation and characterization of new, tailor-made polymeric membranes using poly(styrene-b -butadiene-b -styrene) (SBS) triblock copolymers for gas separation are reported. Structural differences in the copolymer membranes, obtained by manipulation of the self-assembly of the block copolymers in solution, are characterized using atomic force microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and the transport properties of three gases (CO 2 , N 2 , and CH 4 ). The CH 4 /N 2 ideal selectivity of 7.2, the highest value ever reported for block copolymers, with CH 4 permeability of 41 Barrer, is obtained with a membrane containing the higher amount of polybutadiene (79 wt%) and characterized by a hexagonal array of columnar polystyrene cylinders normal to the membrane surface. Membranes with such a high separation factor are able to ease the exploitation of natural gas with high N 2 content. The CO 2 /N 2 ideal selectivity of 50, coupled with a CO 2 permeability of 289 Barrer, makes SBS a good candidate for the preparation of membranes for the post-combustion capture of carbon dioxide.

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Effect of nanoscale morphology on selective ethanol transport through block copolymer membranes

Cited by 40 publications

References 37 publications

Pervaporation of organic compounds from aqueous mixtures using polydimethylsiloxane‐containing block copolymer membranes

Pervaporation of organic compounds from aqueous mixtures using polydimethylsiloxane‐containing block copolymer membranes

Influence of molecular weight and degree of segregation on local segmental dynamics of ordered block copolymers

Nanostructured Poly(styrene‐b‐butadiene‐b‐styrene) (SBS) Membranes for the Separation of Nitrogen from Natural Gas

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