Silicalite-1

Abstract(#br)To improve the affinity between silicalite-1 and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), the silicalite-1 particles were modified by a silane coupling agent vinyltriethoxysilane (VTES) and incorporated into polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) matrix for the preparation of silicalite-1/PDMS hybrid membranes. The modified silicalite-1 particles were examined by XRD, FT-IR and TGA, and the results showed that the silane coupling agent was bonded to the surface of silicalite-1 particles through chemical bonds and the modification did not influence the framework of silicalite-1 crystals.

Abstract(#br)Herein, we report a method for the fabrication of an efficient membrane for butanol recovery from dilute aqueous solution using micron-sized particles of surface modified silicalite-1 as macro-crosslinkers within a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) matrix. In this work, silicalite-1 of nano- and micron-sized particles were synthesized and surface modified with a range of alkyloxysilanes in the fabrication of mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) in order to minimize the undesirable voids.

Abstract(#br)Sedimentation of silicalite-1 occurs in the fabrication of thin silicalite-1 filled polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) hybrid composite membranes if the viscosity of membrane solution is low, which makes this preparation challenging. In this work, a new method that use a platinum catalytic agent to assist the pre-polymerization of PDMS polymer to increase the viscosity of the membrane solution was studied.