Fabrication of ceramic tube-supported tetraethyl-orthosilicate cross-linked polydimethylsiloxane membranes for separation of furfural-water mixture by pervaporation technology

In this study, polydimethylsiloxane/tetraethyl-orthosilicate (PDMS/TEOS) hybrid materials with different TEOS ratios were synthesized by cross-linking method. Ceramic tube-supported PDMS/TEOS membranes were fabricated by dip-coating method. Effect of TEOS content, feed concentration, and feed temperature through separation of a furfural-water mixture by pervaporation (PV) technology was investigated. The highest PV performance was obtained with the total flux of 1.19 kg/m(2)h with TEOS content of 1.8 g, furfural feed concentration of 30 wt.%, operating temperature, and vacuum pressure at 100 kPa and 50 degrees C, respectively. PDMS/TEOS was successfully synthesized and coated on ceramic tube-supported with a thickness of 15 mu m. The ceramic tube-supported membrane demonstrated good hydrophobicity with a contact angle of 109.5 degrees and excellent thermal stability at 450 degrees C. The obtained results demonstrated that the ceramic tube-supported PDMS/TEOS membrane is potent to be utilized for the separation of the furfural-water mixture by PV technology.

Automated summary

In this study, PDMS/TEOS hybrid materials with different TEOS ratios were synthesized and ceramic tube-supported membranes were fabricated. The results showed that the ceramic tube-supported PDMS/TEOS membranes exhibited good hydrophobicity and excellent thermal stability, and achieved high performance in the separation of furfural-water mixture by pervaporation.