Novel ploy(vinyl alcohol)/carbon nanotube hybrid membranes for pervaporation separation of benzene/cyclohexane mixtures

Novel ploy(vinyl alcohol)/carbon nanotube hybrid membranes were prepared and carbon nanotube was dispersed by using β-cyclodextrin (β-CD). These hybrid membranes were characterized by TEM, SEM and DMA. Both pure PVA and β-CD-CNT/PVA hybrid membranes are uniform and these hybrid membranes exhibited significant improvement in Young's modulus and thermal stability as compared to pure PVA and β-CD/PVA membranes. These membranes were applied to pervaporation separation of benzene/cyclohexane mixtures, and showed excellent pervaporation properties. The permeation flux of benzene could be 61.0 g/(m2 h) and separation factor could be 41.2, which are above the upper bound trade-off curve summarized by Lue and Peng. The effects of β-CD-CNT content, operating temperature and feed flow rate on pervaporation properties also were investigated.