The Fork in the Road: Research from Tianjin Key Laboratory of Membrane Science and Desalination Technology

“When you come to the fork in the road, take it” -- Yogi Berra (American professional Baseball Player and Manager. b.1925)

When you see a fork in the road, bend down to pick it up … it may be worth your while.

See, for example, the following abstract …

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Journal of Hazardous Materials
Enhanced pervaporative desulfurization by polydimethylsiloxane membranes embedded with silver/silica core-shell microspheres
Ruijian Cao (a), Xiongfei Zhang (a), Hong Wu (a), (b), Jingtao Wang (a), Xiaofei Liu (a) and Zhongyi Jiang (a)
wuhong2000@gmail.com
a Key Laboratory for Green Chemical Technology, Ministry of Education of China, School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300072, P.R. China
b Tianjin Key Laboratory of Membrane Science and Desalination Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, P.R. China
Received 26 October 2010; revised 5 January 2011; accepted 6 January 2011. Available online 14 January 2011.
Abstract
Pervaporative desulfurization based on membrane technology provides a promising alternative for removal of sulfur substances (as represented by thiophene) in fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) gasoline. The present study focused on the performance enhancement of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) membrane by incorporation of core-shell structured silver/silica microspheres. A silane coupling agent, N-[3-(trimethoxysily)propyl]-ethylenediamine (TSD), was used to chelate the Ag+ via its amino groups and attach the silver seeds onto the silica surface via condensation of its methoxyl groups. The resultant microspheres were characterized by Zeta-positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy (ZetaPALS), inductively coupled plasmaoptical emission spectrophotometer (ICP), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The Ag+/SiO2-PDMS composite membranes were prepared by blending PDMS with the as-synthesized silver/silica microspheres. PALS analysis was used to correlate the apparent fractional free volume with permeation flux. The sorption selectivity towards thiophene was enhanced after incorporation of silver/silica microspheres due to the π–complexation between the silver on the microsphere surface and the thiophene molecules. The pervaporative desulfurization performance of the composite membrane was investigated using thiophene/n-octane mixture as a model gasoline. The composite membrane exhibited an optimum desulfurization performance with a permeation flux of 7.76 kg/(m2 h) and an enrichment factor of 4.3 at the doping content of 5%.
Keywords: Gasoline desulfurization; Pervaporation; Composite membrane; silver/silica; Polydimethylsiloxane


source: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6TGF-51Y57TR-7&_user=10&_coverDate=01%2F14%2F2011&_alid=1619310663&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_origin=search&_zone=rslt_list_item&_cdi=5253&_sort=r&_st=13&_docanchor=&view=c&_ct=1&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=a903763158eaebc0402c1f9923098875&searchtype=a


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An intriguing article … and you may find several others worth reading when you Google® the following …

Tianjin Key Laboratory of Membrane Science and Desalination Technology desulfurization

Tianjin Key Laboratory of Membrane Science and Desalination Technology is one of the two organizations mentioned beneath the authors’ names. Simply by adding a keyword to the organization name, you can design a highly focused search that may yield additional articles of interest.

It is a fork worth picking up.
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Jean Steinhardt (LinkedIn Profile: www.linkedin.com/in/jeansteinhardtresearch ) specializes in helping organizations like yours design effective online research strategies. Follow the Desulfurization Blog (http://www.desulf.blogspot.com/ ) for search tips and strategies applicable across a broad range of technology topics.