Preparation and characterization of PVA/GA/Laponite membranes to enhance pervaporation desalination performance

Pervaporation (PV) has shown great promise in water desalination technology. In this work, Laponite XLG - Poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA-Lap) mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) were fabricated to investigate the elaboration of desalination of high-salinity water by pervaporation. The influence of Laponite content on the morphology, chemical structure and hydrophilicity of the membranes was investigated. In addition, salt transport properties in the membranes were observed. Moreover, the effect of different Laponite content in the PVA matrix on the desalination performance was observed at temperatures from 40 degrees C to 70 degrees C and feed solutions with up to 10 wt% NaCl. The prepared MMMs showed higher hydrophilicity and roughness of the surface and higher mechanical stability. The higher water flux of 58.6 kg/m(2) h with a salt rejection over 99.9% was achieved using 2 wt% Laponite XLG MMMs desalinating 3 wt% aqueous NaCl solution at 70 degrees C. The salt permeability in the membrane was lower by two orders of magnitude than that of water. The water/salt selectivity increased, while the water permeability decreased, with increasing of Laponite content in the membrane.