Pervaporation properties of EC membrane crosslinked by hyperbranched-polyester acrylate

An aliphatic type of hyperbranched-polyester (HBPE) that was synthesized from 2,2-dihydroxymethyl propanyl acid (DMPA) and 1,1,1-trihydroxymethyl propane (TMP) was end-capped with acrylic group, and the photo-polymerizable hyperbranched-polyester (AHBPE) was obtained. These AHBPEs were employed as the macromolecular crosslinking agents to enhance the pervaporation performance of EC membrane for the separation of benzene/cyclohexane mixtures. The effects of the content of AHBPE and benzophenone (BP) as well as the radiating time on the separation factor and the total permeate flux were investigated in detail. The results show that, the performance of EC membranes incorporating AHBPEs of higher generations exhibited much higher flux, with a comparison to the membranes modified by micromolecular crosslinking agent of ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDM). The membrane with the total permeation flux of 42.5 kg μm m−2 h−1 and the separation factor of 6.82 was obtained at the AHBPE and BP content of 40 wt% and 10 wt%, respectively.