Summary: Preparation of organic‐inorganic hybrid membranes and their pervaporation permeation and separation characteristics for an aqueous solution of 0.05 wt.‐% benzene are described. In this study, we prepared organic‐inorganic hybrid membranes by the sol‐gel reaction of tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) as an inorganic component with poly(methyl methacrylate‐co‐vinyltriethoxysilane) (P(MMA‐co‐VTES)) and poly(butyl methacrylate‐co‐vinyltriethoxysilane) (P(BMA‐co‐VTES)) as organic components. When an aqueous solution of dilute benzene (0.05 wt.‐%) was permeated through the P(MMA‐co‐VTES)/TEOS and P(BMA‐co‐VTES)/TEOS hybrid membranes, the benzene concentration in the permeate through all hybrid membranes was higher than that in the feed solution. This result demonstrates that these hybrid membranes are benzene selective for an aqueous solution containing dilute benzene. The benzene/water selectivity of the P(BMA‐co‐VTES)/TEOS hybrid membrane was about 20 times higher than that of the P(MMA‐co‐VTES)/TEOS hybrid membrane. Specifically, the P(BMA‐co‐VTES)/TEOS hybrid membrane with a TEOS content of 75 mol‐% showed the highest benzene/water selectivity. The benzene/water selectivity of the hybrid membranes depended significantly on the cross‐linked structures formed by the sol‐gel reaction of VTES and TEOS.
Effects of the TEOS content on the sorption selectivity (○) and the diffusion selectivity (?) for an aqueous solution of 0.05 wt.‐% benzene through P(MMA‐co‐VTES)/TEOS and P(BMA‐co‐VTES)/TEOS hybrid membranes at 40 °C.
