Graft Polymerization of Stearyl Methacrylate on PET Track-Etched Membranes for Oil-Water Separation

Arman B Yeszhanov; Indira B Muslimova; G B Melnikova; A S Petrovskaya; Aibek S Seitbayev; S A Chizhik; Nariman K Zhappar; Ilya V Korolkov; Olgun Güven; Maxim V Zdorovets

doi:10.3390/polym14153015

Graft Polymerization of Stearyl Methacrylate on PET Track-Etched Membranes for Oil-Water Separation

Polymers (Basel). 2022 Jul 26;14(15):3015. doi: 10.3390/polym14153015.

Authors

Arman B Yeszhanov^{1

2}, Indira B Muslimova^{1

2}, G B Melnikova^{1

3}, A S Petrovskaya³, Aibek S Seitbayev^{1

2}, S A Chizhik³, Nariman K Zhappar⁴, Ilya V Korolkov^{1

2}, Olgun Güven⁵, Maxim V Zdorovets^{1

2

6}

Affiliations

¹ L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University, Satpaev Str., 5, Nur-Sultan 010008, Kazakhstan.
² The Institute of Nuclear Physics, Ibragimov Str., 1, Almaty 050032, Kazakhstan.
³ A.V. Luikov Heat and Mass Transfer Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, P. Brovki Str., 15, 220072 Minsk, Belarus.
⁴ LLP "EcoSave", 3 Microdistrict-9, Stepnogorsk, Akmola Region 021500, Kazakhstan.
⁵ Department of Chemistry, Hacettepe University, Beytepe, Ankara 06800, Turkey.
⁶ Ural Federal University, Mira Str. 19, 620002 Ekaterinburg, Russia.

Abstract

In this article, results of PET track-etched membranes (PET TeMs) hydrophobized by photo-induced graft polymerization of stearyl methacrylate (SM) inside the pores were presented. The effects of monomer concentration, time of irradiation and the nature of the solvent on the degree of grafting and membrane morphology were investigated. The PET TeMs with pore diameters ranging from 350 nm (pore density of 1 × 10⁸ pore/cm²) to 3.05 µm (pore density of 1 × 10⁶ pore/cm²) were hydrophobized and tested for oil-water separation by using hexadecane-water and chloroform-water emulsions. Studies have shown high separation performance for membranes (up to 1100 mL/m²·s) with large pore diameters while achieving a high degree of purification.

Keywords: hydrophobic modification; ion-track membranes; photo-induced graft polymerization; water–oil separation.

Abstract

Grants and funding