Tertiary Amine-Mediated Polyvinyl Alcohol Membrane Over the Porous Support of Polyvinyl Chloride Membrane for CO2 Separation

Abstract: Great attention has been paid to membrane-based separation technology in various separation fields, including gas separation. It provides the benefits of energy efficiency, environmental friendliness, easy scale-up, and convenience in operation. Different division advancements are being utilized for the expulsion of acid gas carbon dioxide (CO2). The aim of this work is to synthesis the membrane using polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) with treatment (WT) and without treatment (WOT) of the additive that is triethanolamine (TEA), to study the effect of additive on the permeance of membrane towards CO2 and the morphology changes of each membrane. In this research, virgin PVA and PVA with TEA were cast upon the porous support membrane of polyvinyl chloride (PVC). PVA was used as the polymer matrix, and TEA was used as a CO2 facilitating agent. Distilled water was used as a solvent for TEA and PVA in preparing the solution. Dimethyl acetamide (DMAc) and Tetrahydrofuran (THF) were used as solvents for PVC porous membranes. These membranes were tested on CO2 to find out the permeability and flux rates (J). For the morphology of the membrane, we performed SEM; for thermal analysis, we performed DSC and TGA, and for the strength, we performed the tensile test. The results reveal that the presence of TEA changes the morphology and thermal behavior increases the strength and the permeability of CO2. In a nutshell, the presence of TEA enhanced the performance and the morphology of the membrane. Keywords: Phase inversion technique, Permeance, Selectivity, Solution diffusion model, Tertiary amine, Triethanolamine