Enhanced pervaporation performance of zeolite membranes treated by atmospheric-pressure plasma

Abstract Zeolite membranes are widely used for the dehydration of alcohol via pervaporation. This paper presents a post-synthesis atmospheric-pressure plasma jet (APPJ) treatment aimed at enhancing the water/ethanol separation factor for FER, MOR, and FER-MOR hybrid zeolite membranes. APPJ treatment was shown to increase the separation factor of the three membranes as follows: FER (93 to 377), MOR (141 to 286), and FER-MOR (178 to 315). Pure FER zeolite and MOR membranes increased the water flux slightly. APPJ treatment was shown to reduce crystallinity and air permeability, which suggests a partial elimination of pinholes at grain boundaries in the zeolite membranes and may partially explain the improvement in water/ethanol separation performance. The hydrophilic surface of the APPJ-treated samples may also contribute to the improved separation performance. Note that the proposed APPJ treatment scheme is also applicable to other types of zeolite membrane for alcohol dehydration.