Poly (Dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS)/Carbon Nanotube (CNT) Nanocomposite Membranes: Preparation and Characterizations

摘要

Desulfurization of gasoline is an important subject, as the sulfur containing compounds will cause issues like low fuel combustion value, engine damage, and reforming catalyst poison. In chemical and petrochemical industries, a promising operational unit is a pervaporation (PV). PV can be used to separate organic-organic liquid mixtures. PV has attracted increasing research attention worldwide to remove sulfur contents from gasoline. By using PV technology, sulfur components can be potentially removed from the gasoline feed, because sulfur has higher affinity and fast diffusivity in the membrane. For sustainable industrial growth, membrane technology is an important tool to develop new industrial processes. Membrane materials, membrane configuration and preparation procedures are an important consideration in membrane technology. Various materials were investigated to develop a very selective membrane which is permeable to specific gases. Poly (dimethylsiloxane), PDMS has been one of the materials choices for membrane preparation towards gasoline desulfurization process. Polymer membranes have a wide range of pores and channel sizes with different topological properties. The free volume of polymer membrane plays an important role in the transportation of lower molecular weight species and gases. Along with the free volume, efficient micro or nano pore size distribution of polymer membrane plays a significant influence on polymer properties. Here, we are targeting carbon nanotube based PDMS nanocomposite membrane synthesis. PDMS/CNT membranes with 0.5% loading of various CNTs (single walled, multi walled, and mixture) were synthesized, followed by characterization and property analysis with a variety of analytical tools, including Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Raman spectroscopy, Contact angle measurement, Thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) and Tensile testing.