Pervaporation Separation of Water/Ethanol Mixtures through PBMA/anionic PAA IPN Membrane

IPN (Interpenetrating Polymer Network) is a mixture of two or more crosslinked polymers with physically interlocked network structures between the component polymers. IPN can be classified as an alloy of thermosets and has the characteristics of thermosets such as the thermal resistance and chemical resistance and also has the characteristics of polymer alloys with enhanced impact resistance and amphoteric properties. The physical interlocking during the synthesis restricts the phase separation of the component polymer with chemical pinning process, thus the control of morphology is possible through variations of the reaction temperature and pressure, catalyst concentration and crosslinking agent concentration. Finely dispersed domain structure can be obtained through IPN synthesis of polymer components with gross immiscibility. In membrane applications, particularly for the separation of liquid mixtures, crosslinked polymer component with specific affinity to the permeate is needed. With the presence of the permeant-inert polymer component, the mechanical strength and the selectivity of the membranes are enhanced by restricting the swelling of the transporting polymer component networks.