ON THE SEPARATION OF ALCOHOL/WATER MIXTURES BY POLYETHYLENE ION EXCHANGE MEMBRANES.

In this letter we report some of the results that were obtained for the separation of alcohol-water mixtures employing sulfonated polyethylene membranes. The results indicate that almost a complete, one-stage separation, can be achieved by using the membrane's ion exchange networks for such a separation. These results prove the feasibility of a transport concept, which capitalizes on the ion-pair solvation power, rather than the chemical nature of the membrane's polymer chain, for the separation of liquid mixtures. Consequently, the mass transport properties of such a membrane can be controlled or altered to yield some desired permselectivity by the introduction of a proper combination of counterions into such membranes.