• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.420-426
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• 2017

Recently, solvent-resistant nanofiltration membranes have been studied for the separation of solvents or solutes using a molecular weight cut-off system of the polymer which is resistant to a specific solvent. Required conditions for these membranes must have are excellent physical properties and solvent resistance. Polybenzimidazole, which is known to be one of the most heat-resistant commercially available polymers, has an excellent inherent solvent resistance and it is even insoluble in stronger organic solvents when cross-linked. Therefore, in this study, the applicability of polybenzimidazole as a solvent resistant nanofiltration membrane was discussed. The membrane was fabricated using the non-solvent induced phase separation method and showed a suitable morphology as a nanofiltration membrane confirmed by field emission scanning electron microscopy. In addition, the permeance of the solvent in the presence or absence of cross-linking was investigated and the stability was also confirmed through long operation. The permeance test was carried out with five different solvents: water, ethanol, benzene, N, N-dimethylacetamide (DMAc) and n-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP); each of the initial flux was $6500L/m^2h$ (water, 2 bar), $720L/m^2h$ (DMAc, 5 bar), $185L/m^2h$ (benzene, 5 bar), $132L/m^2h$ (NMP, 5 bar), $65L/m^2h$ (ethanol, 5 bar) and the pressure between 2 and 5 bar was applied depending on the type of membrane.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.128-134
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• 2012

In this study, hydroxy polyimide (HPI) was prepared for non-porous membrane by solvent evaporation method. As the result of gas permeance properties measurement, $CO_2$ permeability was 85 Barrer and the $CO_2/N_2$ selectivity was 23 at $30^{\circ}C$. Flat sheet membrane and hollow fiber membrane were prepared by using ternary system of polymer, solvent and non-solvent additive. Morphologies and gas permeance properties were measured by FE-SEM and bubble flow meter. Each $CO_2$ permeability of 18.28 GPU, 70 GPU and $CO_2/N_2$ selectivity of 6.72, 8.63 at $30^{\circ}C$ in the flat sheet membrane and hollow fiber membrane. Hollow fiber membrane has gas permeance property better than flat sheet membrane.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.50-56
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• 2022

In this work, the solvent permeation and separation performance of organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN) membranes were evaluated. Particularly, the PuraMem (PM) series developed for nonpolar solvents were analyzed and tested in dead-end filtration system. PM membranes exhibited higher permeance for nonpolar solvents compared to polar solvents, and their rejection data did not follow conventional trends with respect to solute size. The data showed that simple solution-diffusion model is not suitable to describe the OSN membrane behavior, and a better solvent-solute-membrane interaction parameter must be developed.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.54-61
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• 2012

To separate and recover of VOCs, supporting membranes using PEI were prepared by phase separation method and it was coated with PDMS to prepare PEI-PDMS hollow composite membrane. To investigate characteristic of prepared membrane, pure gas permeability was measured using oxygen and nitrogen, the stage cut and permeance property with feed concentration were evaluated using xylene, ethyl benzene, toluene and cyclohexane. Also, to check solvent resistance on VOCs, stress-strain property of membrane with immersion time in solvent were measured by DMA. The permeance value of $O_2$ and $N_2$ showed 63 GPU and 30 GPU respectively. Permeated VOCs concentration was decreased with increasing stage cut. But, conversely, recovery efficiency that was increased with increasing stage cut. As a result of DMA test, the stress and strain were 11.93 MPa and 13.52%, respectively.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.228-240
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• 2021

The organic solvent robust polybenzimidazole (PBI) membranes were prepared as organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN) membrane for the recycling of alcoholic solvents using non-solvent induced phase separation with different dope solution concentration and coagulant composition of water/ethanol mixtures to control the membrane morphology and permeation performance. Investigation on crosslinking of polybenzimidazole indicated that the membrane crosslinked with dibromoxylene (DBX) had enough mechanical strength and solvent resistance to be applied as a OSN membranes. The crosslinked PBI membrane prepared by more than 20wt% dope concentration coagulated in water showed a rejection of > 90% to Congo Red (MW of 696.66 g/mol) while pure ethanol permeances was more than 22.5 LMH/bar at 5 bar. Investigation on coagulant composition indicated that ethanol permeance through crosslinked PBI OSN membrane increased with increasing of ethanol concentration in water/ethanol mixture coagulants.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.348-354
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• 2019

Recently, the application range of organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN) technology has been expanding, requiring membranes with better performance. In this work, thin film composite (TFC) OSN membrane was fabricated. First, ultrafiltration support membrane was prepared via nonsolvent-induced phase separation (NIPS) technique using polysulfone (PSf) and polyethersulfone (PES). Then, the effect of pore forming additives such as polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) and pluronic F-127 were employed to improve the membrane permeance. The well-known interfacial polymerization technique was employed using MPD-TMC chemistry to form a thin film on top of the fabricated support, and its solvent permeance and nanofiltration performance was characterized. It was found that polyethersulfone support exhibited more reliable performance compared to polysulfone, and PVP additive was more effective compared to Pluronic F-127. As for the oSN performance, polar aprotic solvents like acetonitrile show significantly higher flux (986.5 L·m^-2·h^-1·bar^-1) compared to water and EtOH (9.5 L·m^-2·h^-1·bar^-1).

• Membrane Journal
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.313-318
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• 2017

For the separation of olefins/paraffins, $Poly(ethylene oxide)(PEO)/AgBF_4/Al(NO_3)_3/Ag_2O$ composite membranes were prepared. When $Ag_2O$ was introduced, the initial selectivity and permeance of composite membranes were observed to be 13.7 and 21.7 GPU, respectively. The increase in performance compared to the initial performance of $PEO/AgBF_4/Al(NO_3)_3$ membrane (selectivity 13 and permeance 7.5 GPU) was thought to be due to the increase of Ag ion activity due to the addition of $Ag_2O$. However, performance degradation over time was observed, which was thought to be due to the polymer matrix PEO. Since the PEO polymer could not stabilize the $Ag_2O$ particles, the $Ag_2O$ particles becmae aggregated together as the solvent evaporates, and $Ag_2O$ acts as a barrier. As a result, the permeance decreases over time.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.222-232
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• 2023

In this study, a hollow fiber support membrane was prepared by a non-solvent induced phase separation (NIPS) method using a polysulfone (PSf). The prepared hollow fiber support membrane was coated with PDMS and Pebax to prepare a hollow fiber composite membrane. The prepared composite membrane was measured for permeance and selectivity for pure CO₂, H₂, O₂ and N₂. Gas separation performance of the module having the highest selectivity (CO₂/H₂) among the prepared composite membrane modules was measured according to the change in stage cut using simulated gas. The composition of the simulated gas used at this time was 70% CO₂ and 30% H₂. In the 1 stage experiment, it was possible to obtain values of about 60% of H₂ concentration and 12% of H₂ recovery. In order to overcome the low H₂ concentration and recovery, 2 stage serial test was performed, and through this, it was possible to achieve 70% H₂ concentration and 70% recovery. Through this, it was possible to derive a separation process configuration for CO₂/H₂ separation.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.224-233
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• 2012

To improve permeation performance of gas separation membrane, polysulfone hollow fiber membrane was prepared by wet-dry phase inversion method using Triton X-100 as non-ionic additive. And variation of gas permeation behavior by additive was investigated. Various spinning conditions such as air gap, concentration of polymer, dope tank temperature were controlled and these effects were studied. The morphology and gas permeation property of hollow fiber membranes were investigated using scanning electron microscope (SEM) and bubble flow meter respectively. We confirmed that the membranes added with Triton X-100 had a smooth external skin at various air gap length conditions. The macrovoids of these hollow fiber membranes were more developed with increase of air-gap from 4 to 90 cm and that induced higher permeance. The permeance of polysulfone membranes has the higher value at comparatively lower concentration polymer (30 wt% polysulfone) and lower concentration of additive (15 wt% Triton X-100). When temperature in dope tank was controlled, the membranes prepared at $100^{\circ}C$ showed low permeance because of volatilization of additive and solvent.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.109-115
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• 2022

In this work, the effect of nonwoven support during fabrication of flat sheet membranes via nonsolvent-induced phase separation, was investigated in detail. It was found that dope solutions with low viscosity tend to penetrate through the nonwoven support during phase inversion, resulting in nonhomogeneous membranes. A simple soaking treatment of nonwoven support prevented such unwanted dope penetration, and resulted in membranes with higher water and solvent permeance performance. The dope penetration through nonwoven was more prominent in solutions with low viscosity, and the nonwoven soaking treatment not effective in solutions with high viscosity.