Synthesis of a Highly Porous Polyethylene Membrane Support by Electrospinning- Optimization of the Parameters Involved

The goal of the present work was to optimize the solution and process parameters for the electrospinning of polyethylene to form a porous fiber mat,which was to be used as a membrane in pervaporation. For the first time,chlorobenzene combined with tetraoctyl ammonium bromide salt was used as asolvent for electrospinning polyethylene. Polyethylene fiber mat was generated by solution electrospinning technique, and by maintaining the solution temperature at 95 °C. The corresponding fiber mat is to be used as one of the membrane layers in a ternary membrane support system for pervaporative butanol separation from a fermentation broth. The polymer concentration, salt concentration, ratio of the electrospinning voltage to the distance between needle tip and collector, electrospinning voltage and distance between the needle tipand the collector, were optimized to get the best possible fiber mat. One parameter at a time was varied while keeping the others constant. The resultant fibers were beaded. Efforts have been made to optimize the parameter values to obtain fewer beads and more fibers. The fiber mats were characterized with FESEM and ImageJ to determine the morphology and the fiber diameter.