Development of highly crosslinked polymeric supports for enhanced solvent resistance during organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN)

Organic solvents have immense importance in both industrial processes and academic research activities. Similarly, the purification of a lead compound (product) from a reactio...on mixture is an exceptionally important task. Therefore, recovery of organic solvent/principle lead compound is highly desirable. Various organic solvent resistant membranes (OSRMs) have been developed for organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN). However, most of the OSN membranes suffer from a challenge of reduced stability upon exposure to highly polar solvents such as dimethyl formamide (DMF), dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), N-methyl pyrrolidone (NMP) and acetone. In most of the instances, the polymeric supports are easily dissolved in such highly polar solvents. Limited efforts have been directed towards the development of organic solvent stable membranes where polymeric supports have been crosslinked to increase resistance to solvents. The current project is aimed at a systematic investigation and development of new crosslinked supports where a variety of monomers will be used to crosslink supports such as polyacrylonitrile (PAN) crosslinked through hydrazine (NH2 – NH2). A series of diamines and multi-amines will be explored in crosslinking a variety polymeric support. Upon successful crosslinking of polymeric support, the structure of supports will be established through several characterization techniques. After developing crosslinked polymeric support, a novel active layer will be grown on the crosslinked polymeric supports leading to new set of membranes with enhanced resistance to highly polar solvent. The structure of the membranes will be thoroughly studied by several characterization techniques and membranes will be tested for OSN performance by using a variety of non-polar and highly polar solvents. The special focus will be played to the long-term stability of the membranes with the polar solvents.