Negligible Aging in Poly(ether-ether-ketone) Membranes Widens Application Range for Solvent Processing

摘要

Conventional molecular separation processes such as evaporation and distillation exert substantial energy demands due to the latent heat of vaporization of liquids. Membrane technology has lower energy consumption than conventional separation processes, requiring only one-tenth of the energy to process an equivalent volume of liquid. In spite of this advantage, membranes have yet to make a significant impact in industrial organic solvent based systems, due to unresolved issues including their stability over time. Most commercially available nanofiltration and reverse osmosis membranes are either integrally skinned asymmetric (ISA) membranes, or thin film composite (TFC) membranes. Both types are made from glassy polymeric materials which age over time leading to adverse changes in membrane performance; many OSN membranes display more than 30 % permeance decline over the first few days of operation.