Pervaporation dehydration of ethylene glycol with chitosan-poly(vinyl alcohol) blend membranes: Effect of CS-PVA blending ratios

Chitosan-poly(vinyl alcohol), CS-PVA, blended membranes were prepared by solution casting of varying proportions of CS and PVA. The blend membranes were then crosslinked interfacially with trimesoyl chloride (TMC)/hexane. The physiochemical properties of the blend membranes were determined using Attenuated Total Reflection-Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), tensile test and contact angle measurements. Results from ATR-FTIR show that TMC has crosslinked the blend membranes successfully, and results of XRD and DSC show a corresponding decrease in crystallinity and increase in melting point, respectively. The crosslinked CS-PVA blend membranes also show improved mechanical strength but lower flexibility in tensile testing as compared to uncrosslinked membranes. Contact angle results show that crosslinking has decreased the surface hydrophilicity of the blend membranes. The blend membrane properties, including contact angle, melting point and tensile strength, change with a variation in the blending ratio. They appear to reach a maximum when the CS content is at ∼75 wt%. In general, the crosslinked blend membranes show excellent stability during the pervaporation (PV) dehydration of ethylene glycol-water mixtures (10-90 wt% EG) at different temperatures (25-70 °C). At 70 °C, for 90 wt% EG in the feed mixture, the crosslinked blend membrane with 75 wt% CS shows the highest total flux of 0.46 kg/(m2 h) and best selectivity of 986. The blending ratio of 75 wt% CS is recommended as the optimized ratio in the preparation of CS-PVA blend membranes for pervaporation dehydration of ethylene glycol.