Organic Solvent Nanofiltration with Novel Polymeric Membranes

A very large variety of membranes polymeric or otherwise have been investigated over the last two decades for organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN). The materials and structures used to make OSN membranes include among others the following: poly (dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS); mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) of PDMS with zeolites and other fillers; asymmetric integrally skinned polyimide (PI) membrane crosslinked with aromatic or aliphatic diamines; polyaniline; polypyrrole; interfacially polymerized polyamide w/o carbon nanotubes; carbon-based membranes including graphene. One of the weaknesses of most polymeric membranes is their varying tendencies for swelling with demanding organic solvents aprotic or otherwise; this gets reflected in the solute rejection behaviors of such polymers. To this end we have started studying membranes from a particular class of polymers for OSN. We report preliminary results of solvent flux and solute rejection for such membranes. We also report results of molecular dynamic simulations of transport in one such polymeric membrane.