ScienceAsia 28 (2002) :135-143 |doi: 10.2306/scienceasia1513-1874.2002.28.135

Preparation and Characterization of Hydrophilic Pervaporation Membranes from Natural Rubber Latex Based Polymer

Songsak Klamklang, Khantong Soontarapa^* and Somsak Damronglerd

ABSTRACT: To improve the hydrophilic property of natural rubber latex (NR), various methods for combining hydrophilic polymers; ie, mechanical blending (MB), semi-latex interpenetrating polymer network (semi-LIPN), and latex interpenetrating polymer network (LIPN), were studied. Polyacrylamide (PAM) and phthalated chitosan (PhChi) were chosen as hydrophilic polymers for this study. The desired membranes must possess sufficient tensile strength and high water sorption selectivity. The potential membrane usable for pervaporation dehydration of aqueous azeotrope ethanol was the LIPN type prepared from prevulcanized latex and PAM with 60/40 ratio and with 1% EGDM.

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Department of Chemical Technology, Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University,
Phayathai Rd., Phathumwan, Bangkok 10330, Thailand.


* Corresponding author, E-mail: khantong@mail.sc.chula.ac.th

Received 27 Jun 2001, Accepted 22 Nov 2001