Potentials and advances in applications of polyacrylonitrile (PAN)-based membranes for pervaporation dehydration of organic compounds

Separation constitutes one of the main sectors in the chemical industry. The use of the membranes as one of the important separation processes is considered to be the focus of many researchers in the past few decades. Pervaporation plays a major role for this purpose. Environmental compatibility, low energy costs, ease of scale-up and simpler control are namely the prominent advantages of pervaporation over rival processes. Separation of azeotropic and close boiling-point mixtures, and separation of volatile organic compounds from water are among the key features of pervaporation. For the removal of water from organic compounds, hydrophilic polymers are generally used; they are suitable and economical processes, useful for water removal from organic solvent. Modifications made on PAN substrate cross-linked with the active layer can result in pervaporation performance, enhancing perm-selectivity of membrane through constructing the active layer, separation factor and permeation flux and selectivity of the separation process.The present manuscript presents the results of our investigations on the various aspects of employment of membranes derived from PAN and the modifications techniques carried out for improving the performance of resultant membranes for dehydration pervaporation of organic compounds.