Preparation of hydrophobic porous membranes and their application to pervaporation and membrane distillation

In the present work, poly(4-methyl-1-pentene)
(TPX) was used to prepare
hydrophobic microporous membranes, and
the application of the prepared membranes to
pervaporation and osmotic distillation was
also investigated. Since TPX is a polymer
with high degree of crystallinity, solid-liquid
demixing should be taken into consideration
during membrane formation. By using
suitable coagulant, such as propanol,
particulate TPX membranes with inter-connected
pores can thus be successfully
fabricated. By adjusting the coagulation
environment, the pore size of the porous TPX
membrane can be tailored. Experiments were performed to evaluate the performance of the
prepared membranes in pervaporation and
osmotic distillation. The results indicate that
the performance of the microporous TPX
membranes prepared in the present work is
comparable to that of the commercial PTFE
membranes.