Pervaporation performance of polymer/clay nanocomposites

Abstract This chapter outlines polymer/clay nanocomposites and its membrane transport characteristics especially pervaporation (PV) property. PV is a membrane-based process that combines permeation and vaporization and is used for separating two or multicomponent mixtures of various organic fluids through dense membranes. PV is a low energy process and it is very easy to operate. Influence of filler morphology and other parameters such as temperature, feed concentration, permeate pressure, etc. are important factors that may affect the effectiveness of membranes for PV process. Industrial applications such as desalination of sea-water and separation of organic liquid mixtures have benefited immensely from the membrane separation techniques.