Use of nanoporous carbon membranes for separating aqueous/organic mixtures

Abstract

The invention relates to the extraction of organic compounds from mixtures of said compounds with water, using a nanoporous carbon membrane. The invention can be used in any field where it is desired to separate an organic compound of interest from water, such as the drying of alcohols or alkanes.

Claims

1. A method for extracting an organic compound from a fluid mixture of the organic compound with water, wherein the method comprises: contacting a nanoporous carbon membrane before its use with a pure preparation of the organic compound to be extracted to provide an activated nanoporous carbon membrane in which the pure preparation of the organic compound is adsorbed and fills pores of the membrane; contacting the mixture with one side of the activated nanoporous carbon membrane in which the pores of the membrane contain the adsorbed pure preparation of the organic compound; recovering the organic compound from the other side of the nanoporous carbon membrane, wherein the nanoporous carbon membrane is a multilayer graphene oxide (GO) or a reduced graphene oxide (rGO) membrane and the organic compound is an alcohol.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the nanoporous carbon membrane has pore size greater than about 0.9 nm and less than about 1.5 mm.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the alcohol is a C.sub.1-C.sub.12 alcohol.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the C.sub.1-C.sub.12 alcohol is selected from the group consisting of methanol, ethanol, propanol, butanol, ethylene glycol, propylene glycol, glycerol, and mixtures thereof.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the nanoporous carbon membrane is placed on a porous support layer.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of contacting the mixture with one side of the activated nanoporous carbon membrane is carried out while the membrane is still wet with the pure preparation of organic compound.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the nanoporous carbon membrane is a multilayer graphene oxide (GO).

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the nanoporous carbon membrane has a thickness from 0.05 to 1 μm.

Description

LEGENDS OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) FIG. 1: Sketch of the experimental set up used to measure the osmotic flow through the GO and rGO membranes.

(2) FIG. 2: Plot of the distance from the initial position of the menisci as a function of time for ethanol/water solutions (Eth/W) with two different concentrations of water, and for a butanol/water solution (Buth/W), using a GO membrane (the same result is observed with rGO membranes). Empty symbols correspond to the meniscus connected to reservoir (1) (Eth/W or Buth/W solution). Half filled symbols correspond to the meniscus connected to reservoir (2) (Eth or Buth). The distance in counted negatively when the meniscus moves toward the reservoir.

EXAMPLE

(3) A graphene oxide (GO) and a reduced graphene oxide membrane (rGO) were tested for their permeability to water and ethanol in presence of a water/ethanol mixture, and to water and butanol in presence of a water/butanol mixture.

(4) The GO or rGO membranes are made by deposit of a thin layer (thickness 0.1 μm) of GO on a porous support layer (PVDF with a thickness of 150 μm and a pore size of 0.2 μm), as described by Akbari et al. (2016) or Wang et al. (2012). To obtain rGO membranes, GO membranes are directly reduced using ascorbic acid according to the protocol detailed by Su et al. (2014), or Zhang et al. (2010). The membrane is reduced in a solution of ascorbic acid with concentration of 30 g/L, at 50+/−5° C. for 24 h. Finally, it is dried under vacuum for 1 h. Prior to each experiment, the membrane is dipped into ethanol for a few minutes. Each piece of membrane is approximately 5×5 mm.

(5) The semi-permeable behavior and the resulting separation ability of these membranes are evaluated by measuring the osmotic flow through the membranes, as described below.

(6) The experimental set-up used to measure the flow through a membrane is shown in FIG. 1. The membrane (3) is held between two reservoirs of 1.2 ml. Reservoir (1) is filled with a water/ethanol mixture or a water/butanol mixture. Reservoir (2) is filled with ethanol or butanol (concentration of water 0.25 w.t. %). Each reservoir is connected to a glass capillary (5). In each capillary, the meniscus can move freely according to the fluid flow through the membrane. A camera records the motion of the menisci inside the capillaries (6). The side of the membrane with the GO or rGO coating faces reservoir 1.

(7) The displacement of both menisci from the same initial position is plotted as a function of time. The results for ethanol/water mixtures with two different concentrations of water (4 and 6 w.t. %), and for a butanol/water mixture with a concentration of water of 10 w.t. % are shown on FIG. 2.

(8) It is observed that, for a given concentration the menisci move with the same velocity but in opposite directions. The meniscus connected to the reservoir (2) (Eth) moves towards its reservoir while the one connected to the reservoir (1) (Eth/W) moves away from its reservoir. This shows that there is a flow through the membrane from the higher ethanol concentration side to the lower ethanol concentration side, while there is no reverse flow from the higher water concentration side to the lower water concentration side. This shows that the membrane is semi-permeable to ethanol which is the only species able to flow through it.

REFERENCES

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