Enhancing Structural Stability and Pervaporation Performance of Composite Membranes by Coating Gelatin onto Hydrophilically Modified Support Layer

The interfacial compatibility of composite membrane is an important factor to its structural stability and separation performance. In this study, poly (ether sulfone) (PES) support layer was first hydrophilically modified with poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) via surface segregation during the phase inversion process. Gelatin (GE) was then cast on the PVA-modified PES support layer as the active layer followed by crosslinking to fabricate composite membranes for ethanol dehydration. The enrichment of PVA on the surface of support layer improved interfacial compatibility of the as-prepared GE/PVA-PES composite membrane. The water contact angle measurement and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) data confirmed the surface segregation of PVA with a surface coverage density of ∼80%. T-peel test showed that the maximal force to separate the support layer and the active layer was enhanced by 3 times compared with the GE/PES membrane. The effects of PVA content in the support layer, crosslinking of GE active layer and operating parameters on the pervaporative dehydration performance were investigated. The operational stability of the composite membrane was tested by immersing the membrane in ethanol aqueous solution for a period of time. Stable pervaporation performance for dehydration of 90% ethanol solution was obtained for GE/PVA-PES membrane with a separation factor of ∼60 and a permeation flux of ∼1910 g·m−2·h−1 without peeling over 28 days immersion.