Hyperbranched polymer hollow-fiber-composite membranes for pervaporation separation of aromatic/aliphatic hydrocarbon mixtures

The separation of aromatic/aliphatic hydrocarbon mixtures is crucial in the petrochemical industry.Pervaporation is regarded as a promising approach for the separation of aromatic compounds from alkanes. Developing membrane materials with efficient separation performance is still the main task since the membrane should provide chemical stability, high permeation flux, and selectivity. In this study, the hyperbranched polymer(HBP) was deposited on the outer surface of a polyvinylidene fluoride(PVDF)hollow-fiber ultrafiltration membrane by a facile dip-coating method. The dip-coating rate, HBP concentration, and thermal cross-linking temperature were regulated to optimize the membrane structure.The obtained HBP/PVDF hollow-fiber-composite membrane had a good separation performance for aromatic/aliphatic hydrocarbon mixtures. For the 50%/50%(mass) toluene/n-heptane mixture, the permeation flux of optimized composite membranes could reach 1766 g·m^(-2)·h^(-1), with a separation factor of 4.1 at 60℃. Therefore, the HBP/PVDF hollow-fiber-composite membrane has great application prospects in the pervaporation separation of aromatic/aliphatic hydrocarbon mixtures.

Membrane materials in the pervaporation separation of aromatic/aliphatic hydrocarbon mixtures—A review

The separation of aromatic/aliphatic hydrocarbon mixtures is a significant process in chemical industry, but challenged in some cases. Compared with conventional separation technologies, pervaporation is quite promising in terms of its economical, energy-saving, and eco-friendly advantages. However, this technique has not been used in industry for separating aromatic/aliphatic mixtures yet. One of the main reasons is that the separation performance of existed pervaporation membranes is unsatisfactory. Membrane material is an important factor that affects the separation performance. This review provides an overview on the advances in studying membrane materials for the pervaporation separation of aromatic/aliphatic mixtures over the past decade. Explored pristine polymers and their hybrid materials(as hybrid membranes) are summarized to highlight their nature and separation performance. We anticipate that this review could provide some guidance in the development of new materials for the aromatic/aliphatic pervaporation separation.

BIODEGRADABLE ALIPHATIC/AROMATIC COPOLYESTERS BASED ON TEREPHTHALIC ACID AND POLY(L-LACTIC ACID):SYNTHESIS,CHARACTERIZATION AND HYDROLYTIC DEGRADATION

Biodegradable aliphatic/aromatic copolyesters, poly（butylene terephthalate-co-lactate） （PBTL） were prepared via direct melt polycondensation of terephthalic acid （TPA）, 1,4-butanediol （BDO） and poly（L-lactic acid） oligomer （OLLA）. The effects of polymerization time and temperature, as well as aliphatic/aromatic moiety ratio on the physical and thermal properties were investigated. The largest molecular weight of the copolyesters was up to 64100 with molecular weight distribution index of 2.09 when the polycondensation was carried out at 230℃ for 6 h. DSC, XRD, DMA and TGA analysis clearly indicated that the degree of crystallinity, glass-transition temperature, melting point, decomposition temperature, tensile strength, elongation and Young＇s modulus were influenced by the ratio between TPA and OLLA in the final copolyesters. Hydrolytic degradation results demonstrated that the incorporation of biodegradable lactate moieties into the aromatic polyester could efficiently improve hydrolytic degradability of the copolymer even though it still had many aromatic units in the main chains.

Effect of the Structure of Cations and Anions of Ionic Liquids on Separation of Aromatics from Hydrocarbon Mixtures

The effects of the structure of typical cations and anions of ionic liquids on the separation of benzene and toluene from aromatic/paraffin mixtures were studied. The .results showed that the corresponding separation factors were considerably larger than those of the traditional solvents （Benzene＋Hexane＋sulfolane）, and that the ionic liquids could be used as novel solvents for the separation of aromatics from hydrocarbon mixtures. The key parameters governing the ability of ionic liquids for separating aromatics from hydrocarbon sources were investigated. It was found that the effectiveness of the ionic liquids, based on the same anion, changed in the cation order of [BIqu]^＋〈 [BPy]^＋〈 [BMIM]^＋. The selectivity of the ionic liquid toward aromatics decreased apparently with the increasing length of the substituted alkyl chain of its cationic head ring. The separation factors, based on the same cation, changed in the anion order of [Tf2N]^-〈[PF6]^-〈[BF4]^-〈[C2H5SO4]^-. The solubilities of the aromatics were greater in the ionic liquids based on the former three anions than that in the ionic liquids involving [C2H5SO4]^-.

Visible-light induced transition-metal and photosensitizer-free conversion of aldehydes to acyl fluorides under mild conditions

Acyl fluorides are powerful synthons for acylation with wide application in the synthesis of valued compounds,especially peptides.Herein,a practical and catalyst-free method for the synthesis of acyl fluorides from aldehydes via C(sp^(2))-H fluorination is reported.This method enables the conversion of both aliphatic and aromatic aldehydes into acyl fluorides in good to excellent yields by visible-light under mild conditions in the absence of transition-metal and external photosensitizer.A variety of functional groups were well tolerated for this transformation.This green method provides a practical pathway to synthesize acyl fluorides under mild conditions.