Abstract

Novel polymeric membranes were prepared by incorporating the 13X zeolite into chitosan by solution casting
method. The resulting composite membranes were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy,
X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, thermogravimetric analysis and differential scanning
calorimetry. The results indicates that the, chitosan membranes showed preferential permeation to water for 5-
40% water in feed compositions. The experimental results further revealed that both the flux and selectivity
increased simultaneously with increasing zeolite content in the membrane when compared to the unmodified
chitosan membranes. This was explained on the basis of enhancement of hydrophilicity, selective adsorption
and molecular sieving action by the creation of pores due to zeolites presence in the membrane matrix. The
membrane containing 30 wt. % of zeolite shows the highest separation selectivity of 1620 at 30 oC for 5 mass%
of water in the feed.