Green-fabricated biodegradable poly (butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) membranes for phenol/water separation by pervaporation

초록

The advancement of sustainable membrane technologies for recovering toxic organic compounds from aqueous effluents demands both environmentally friendly operational conditions and the adoption of greener membrane fabrication strategies. In this study, dense membranes based on biodegradable poly (butylene adipate-co-tere-phthalate) (PBAT) were fabricated using a binary green solvent system of ethyl lactate and 2-methyl tetrahydrofuran (mTHF) as the casting solvent for pervaporation-based separation of phenol from water. The bioderived solvent system promoted complete PBAT dissolution and controlled demixing in the casting process, yielding homogeneous membranes free of defects and exhibiting adequate mechanical integrity and thermal stability. The PBAT membranes demonstrated the maximum phenol uptake up to 85 wt% due to specific interactions between phenolic hydroxyl groups and the ester/aromatic segments of PBAT, promoting greater phenol sorption and swelling and leading to higher phenol permeability than water. With an increase in feed concentration from 0.1 to 1.0 wt%, the permeation flux increased markedly from 309.5 to 629.3 g m-2 h-1, demonstrating that higher feed concentrations promote superior flux. Overall, the study demonstrates that PBAT membranes derived from an ethyl lactate-mTHF green solvent system offer strong potential as a sustainable pervaporation platform for removing phenolic pollutants from aqueous environment.

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