Preparation and characterization of TiO2-regenerated cellulose inorganic–polymer hybrid membranes for dehydration of caprolactam

Novel membrane of inorganic–polymer hybrid membrane was prepared by incorporation of the nano-TiO2 into regenerated cellulose (RC). The resulting membrane was characterized by AFM, SEM, and XRD. TiO2 particles formed on the surface and in the interior of the hybrid membrane due to the TiO2 conglomeration, and the surface roughness of the hybrid membrane increased linearly with increasing TiO2 content. The membrane was tested for their ability to separate caprolactam–water mixtures by pervaporation. Among all the prepared membranes, RC-TiO2 inorganic–polymer hybrid membrane containing 5 wt.% TiO2 exhibited the good pervaporation performance with a flux of 1787.3 g m−2 h−1 and separation factor of 55091.7 at 328 K for 50 wt.% caprolactam. Besides, the normalized permeation fluxes in terms of water permeance, caprolactam permeance and selectivity were also introduced to evaluate the membranes performance. The activation energies were calculated using Arrhenius equation.