Pervaporation characteristics of a PDMS/PMHS membrane for removal of dimethyl sulfoxide from aqueous solutions

In this study, pollution control and solvent recovery of dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) were simultaneously attained by using pervaporation (PV) process, for the first time. In order to use PV process a hydrophobic composite membrane of poly(dimethyl siloxane)-poly(methyl hydrogen siloxane) (PDMS/PMHS) was synthesized. The synthesized membrane was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electronic microscopy (SEM), and thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA). The pervaporation separation of different dimethyl sulfoxide/water mixtures with various low percentages of the organic specie was carried out. The fluxes and separation factors of the membrane were examined for the separation of dimethyl sulfoxide from their aqueous solutions, and results showed that the flux and separation factor were varied depending on the temperature of the feed solution and feed initial concentration. The operating conditions were optimized as the DMSO initial concentration of 20 wt.% and temperature of 70 °C.