Layer-by-layer self-assembled polyelectrolyte membranes for solvent dehydration by pervaporation

Polyelectrolyte composite membranes were prepared by the electrostatic layer-by-layer self-assembly of oppositely charged polyelectrolytes, and the membranes were used for dehydration of isopropanol by pervaporation. The effects of membrane preparation conditions on the separation performance of the resulting membranes were investigated. It was found that a high charge density of the polyelectrolyte was favorable to the formation of permselective membranes and that the polyelectrolyte molecules should be sufficiently larger than the pore size of the microporous substrate in order to reduce the number of polyelectrolyte depositions required to form a defect-free membrane. It has been demonstrated that using the appropriate substrate and under suitable conditions for polyelectrolyte deposition, a permselective membrane can be formed with as few as two polyelectrolyte bilayers, which is much less than those commonly used in the literature (e.g., 60–90 bilayers). At 70 °C, the polyelectrolyte composite membrane with two bilayers exhibited a flux of 1.8 kg/(m2 h) and a permeate water concentration of over 98 wt.% for the dehydration of isopropanol containing 9 wt.% water, which corresponds to a separation factor of greater than 495.