Chemical cross-linking of sago/pva blend membrane for pervaporation separation of water from ethyl acetate mixture

Sago/PVA blend membranes were prepared by solution method for the pervaporation separation of water-ethyl acetate mixture. The membranes were cross-linked with glutaraldehyde (GA). Chemical cross-linked was prepared by immersing the membrane at room temperature for 30 min in chemical solutions containing different content of GA, sulfuric acid and acetone. IR spectroscopy was used to characterize the cross-linking reaction between the hydroxyl group of sago/PVA and the aldehyde group of GA. The membranes were also characterized using scanning electron micrographs (SEM) and degree of swelling (DS). The pervaporation separation of waterethyl acetate mixture was performed over a range of 1-4 wt% of water in the feed at feed temperature varying from 30oC to 60oC to examine the separation performance of the sago/PVA membranes