Cross-linked porous monolithic tubular membranes for separation processes

Abstract

In the search of chemical processes with low environmental impact, green chemistry is becoming more important now a days. Furthermore it is necessary for the development of simpler chemical processes where reaction and purification processes are unified. In this work, porous monolithic tubular membranes have been prepared by free radical polymerization. These polymeric membranes can be functionalized with Ionic liquid-like units by simple substitution of the functional groups (methyl chloride) by butyl imidazole. This modification induces a change on the surface polarity, which is a fundamental variable for selectivity of the separation. Furthermore it is possible to modulate surface polarity by exchange the counterion of the imdazolium units. The polymeric membranes have been tested on the nano-filtration of both biphasic and emulsion mixtures of water and hexane.