Synthesis of Polymeric Membranes for Oil-Water Separation

Abstract

In this work treatment of oily waste water was studied with the help of polymeric membranes. Membranes were composed of polymeric blend having cellulose acetate and nylon 66 which was never used for membrane purposes. Results of rejection and flux were compared with commercial cellulose acetate membranes. Membranes were synthesized with the help of solution casting. Nylon 66 is a man made synthetic polymer having extraordinary mechanical properties. It is due to its mechanical and thermal properties that it has become the most widely used polymeric material. Membranes were characterized with the help of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) in order to examine morphology of the membrane as well as impact of change in solvent on overall structure of the membrane. Mechanical and thermal properties of blended membranes as well as commercial membrane were also examined with the help of thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), universal tensile testing machine (UTM). Characterizations of membrane revealed that blending of membrane showed increase in thermal and mechanical properties of membrane as that of commercial membrane. Membranes were tested for flux as well as rejection of oil as a function of nylon 66 compositions and transmembrane pressure. Result showed that synthetic membrane composed of 2% nylon 66 and DMSO as a solvent give high flux up to 30 L/m².h as well as rejection of oil up to 90% whereas commercial membrane showed flux of 22 L/m².hr and rejection up to 70%.