Two-step hierarchical crosslinking to construct acid-resistance membrane for pervaporation dehydration of artificial esterification reaction

Pervaporation technology coupled with esterification reaction greatly improves the conversion rate, but both the organic acid reagent and the inorganic acid catalyst require a highly acid-resistance membrane for long-term conducting the separation task. Herein, the intensified hydrogen-bonding complexed polymer nanoparticles (iHCPN) membrane was constructed by a ‘two-step hierarchical crosslinking’ strategy: low-complexed polymer nanoparticles dispersion was utilized to fabricate the membrane which was further crosslinked at a low pH environment to significantly enhance the hydrogen bond intensity. The mechanism of iHCPN membrane in realizing stable high-performance in dehydration of artificial ester synthesis system was proposed. The iHCPN membrane was demonstrated for dehydration of various artificial ester synthesis systems, which offer a good water selectivity, a high flux of above 1.8 kg/m2.h, as well as remarkable long-term running stability. As such, the proposed iHCPN membrane could overcome the acid-induced-erosion issue, showing the potential for coupling the esterification reaction to boost reaction conversion rates.