Technological watch

Ceramic tube?supported polydimethylsiloxane/tetraethyl?orthosilicate (PDMS/TEOS) membranes with different precursor ratios were successfully prepared. The influences of various factors on the pervaporation (PV) performance of PDMS/TEOS are studied. The optimal PDMS/TEOS active layer demonstrated a good structural interaction between precursor, thermal stability, and hydrophobicity. Ceramic tube?supported PDMS/TEOS membrane showed excellent PV performance of with low activation energy.AbstractIn 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/m2h with TEOS content of 1.8 g, furfural feed concentration of 30?wt.%, operating temperature, and vacuum pressure at 100?kPa and 50?°C, respectively. PDMS/TEOS was successfully synthesized and coated on ceramic tube?supported with a thickness of 15??m. The ceramic tube?supported membrane demonstrated good hydrophobicity with a contact angle of 109.5° and excellent thermal stability at 450?°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.