Effects of APTEOS content and electron beam irradiation on physical and separation properties of hybrid nylon-66 membranes

Nylon-66 contains functional groups which form hydrogen bonds with inorganic silica networks and allow the creation of hybrid membranes. As a typical semicrystalline polymer, nylon-66 can be crosslinked through electron beam (EB) irradiation to form nanofiltration membranes. The effects of γ-aminopropyltriethoxylsilane (APTEOS) and EB irradiation on the physical and separation properties of nylon-66 membranes were studied in this work. Hybrid nylon-66 membranes were prepared by adding an APTEOS solution (5 wt%, 10 wt% and 20 wt%) into nylon-66 which was dissolved in formic acid. Before air drying, membranes were irradiated at 60 kGy, 70 kGy and 80 kGy. More cellular pores were formed in nylon-66 membranes with the addition of APTEOS. However, increased irradiation dose caused the formation of a dense layer in nylon-66 membranes. Crosslinked silica in nylon-66 membranes was confirmed by FT-IR and DMA, while XRD results showed that there was a high degree of crystallinity in some membranes after irradiation. With improvements in membrane pore size and the ratio of membrane thickness to porosity, nylon-66 membrane with 10 wt% of APTEOS irradiated at 70 kGy exhibited satisfactory permeability, excellent removal of neutral solutes and improved rejection of divalent ions.