Fluoroalkyl-grafted methacrylate-PDMS membranes using fluoromonomer as a diluent for enhancing biobutanol pervaporation

Si, Z., Wang, Y., Liu, C., Xue, T., Yang, S., Li, G., Zhang, C., Chen, B., Cai, D. and Qin, P. (2021) Fluoroalkyl-grafted methacrylate-PDMS membranes using fluoromonomer as a diluent for enhancing biobutanol pervaporation. Green Chemistry, 23(18), pp. 7053-7064. (doi: 10.1039/D1GC02212A)

Abstract

In bioalcohol production, alcohol-permselective membranes have an important role to play in the growing demand for biofuels, where polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) membranes are considered as a benchmark of alcohol-permselective membranes. However, two key technical barriers still need to be addressed, i.e., (i) the long curing time and the use of toxic solvents hamper their large-scale application and (ii) the trade-off between pervaporation performance and anti-biofouling ability limits the separation of biobutanol from fermentation broths. To overcome these bottlenecks, in this study, a UV-polymerizable fluoromonomer (F-monomer) is introduced into a methacrylate-PDMS (MA-PDMS) membrane-forming system instead of toxic solvents. The green and ultrafast membrane preparation (31–72 s) via UV polymerization is realized. The results indicate that the fluoroalkyl groups –(CF2)6 of the F-monomer enhance the hydrophobicity of the membrane surface, yielding a high water contact angle of 112°. Compared with an MA-PDMS membrane, the as-prepared MA-PDMS-F membranes were found to have a simultaneously enhanced membrane flux (862–1216 g m−2 h−1) and separation factor (34–41) when used in the separation of a butanol/water binary solution. Importantly, the MA-PDMS-F membrane surface weakly interacts with microbes in the fermentation broth because of its much lower polarizability, which leads to an outstanding anti-biofouling ability.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Chen, Bo
• Authors: Si, Z., Wang, Y., Liu, C., Xue, T., Yang, S., Li, G., Zhang, C., Chen, B., Cai, D., and Qin, P.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering > Systems Power and Energy
• Journal Name: Green Chemistry
• Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry
• ISSN: 1463-9262
• ISSN (Online): 1463-9270
• Published Online: 06 August 2021