Robust poly(vinyl alcohol) membranes containing chitosan/chitosan derivatives microparticles for pervaporative dehydration of ethanol

The series of novel hybrid poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) membranes filled with chitosan particles (CS) and its four derivatives: phosphorylated (CS-P), crosslinked with glutaraldehyde (CS-GA), glycidol-modified (CS-G) and sulphated (CS-SO₃) chitosan were prepared and tested in the pervaporative separation process of a water/ethanol mixture. The influence of various types of chitosan particles, as well as their loadings, on transport properties of the membranes was discussed. Consequently, the addition of chitosan particles into the PVA matrix was found to significantly change its hydrophilicity and have a positive impact on the efficiency of ethanol dehydration. The best performance in terms of the highest separation factor (263.3) and PSI (380.3 kg·m⁻²·h⁻¹) was shown for a PVA membrane filled with the phosphorylated chitosan particles (3 wt% CS-P), which significantly outperformed not only other materials considered in this study, but also other hybrid PVA-based membranes described in the literature.