PERVAPORATION SEPARATION OF PENTANE ALCOHOL MIXTURES USING NYLON 6-POLYACRYLIC ACID (PAA) IONICALLY CROSS-LINKED MEMBRANES .2. EXPERIMENTAL-DATA AND THEORETICAL INTERPRETATION

Novel ionically cross-linked blended membranes of nylon 6 and poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) were studied for the pervaporation separation of the binary organic mixture of pentane and methanol. Membranes of composition 25 wt % PAA were used after cross-linking. The experimental data obtained from the pervaporation runs were compared with the theoretical values of the individual permeabilities for binary mixtures predicted by the modified Fels and Huang model. This new model is based on an extension of the free volume theory and the introduction of Flory-Huggins thermodynamics for the calculations of the binary interaction parameters and the diffusion coefficients. The calculated values of permeabilities obtained from this modified model were reasonably close to the experimental values.