Carbon Black Loaded Composite Poly(Dimethyl Siloxane) Membrane Preparation and Application for Hazardous Chemical Removal from Water

Industrial waste-water contains hundreds of hazardous chemical components such as volatile organic compounds. Several of the chemicals, such as acetone, are soluble in water. These chemicals pose a threat to the human health and ecosystem. The governments are interested in decreasing the concentration of these chemicals in waste-water by making environmental regulations. Most of the chemical industries have their own waste-water treatment units. These units can separate impurities down to ppm level. After that point, more complicated and costly methods are required. Alternatively, membrane separation methods, such as pervaporation can be used for selective separations of the volatile organic compounds. Pervaporative separation system is defined as environmentally friendly, cost effective process to separate azeotropic and water soluble mixtures. The membrane is the main constituent of the pervaporation and the performance of the separation is directly affected by the membrane selection. In this study, carbon black loaded poly(dimethyl siloxane) mixed matrix membrane was prepared to separate acetone from water by pervaporation. Thermal gravimetric analysis was applied to determine the thermal behavior of the membrane. Inorganic distribution was monitored by means of polarized electron microscopy. Contact angle measurement was applied to determine the effect of filler incorporation on the polymer hydrophobicity. Effect of temperature and feed molar ratio on acetone selectivity and flux were determined.