Pervaporation separation of pentane‐alcohol mixtures through ionically crosslinked blended membranes. I. Thermal measurements, electron microscopy and tensile studies

Ionically crosslinked blended membranes were prepared from blends of nylon 6 and poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) with the proportion of PAA ranging from 25 to 45 wt.‐%. The technique consists of casting a film of the blend, followed by drying and immersion in an aluminum salt crosslinking solution for a predetermined time. The glass transition temperature (Tg) of the membranes was determined by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). All the samples exhibited a single Tg, which is higher than that of either polymer. There is also a shift in the Tg with increasing scanning time. This phenomenon is attributed to the elimination of water molecules and the formation of anhydrides in the non‐crosslinked PAA portion of the membrane. The membrane morphology was studied using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and shows a dense structure without any pores. No phase separation is observed by scanning cross‐sections of the samples, indicating that nylon 6 and PAA are completely miscible in the ranges studied. The membrane material strength lies in the range of 5 to 26 MPa and varies with the amount of PAA in the membrane. Samples with higher PAA content show lower tensile strength in spite of increased crosslinking density. This is due to the inherent low strength of PAA, coupled with increasing swelling of the membrane with increasing PAA content. The latter is confirmed by the measurement of water uptake into a dry membrane which increases from 23.6% to 76.3% with the membrane PAA content increasing from 25 to 45 wt.%.