Selective separation of water–alcohol binary mixture through poly(maleimide‐co‐acrylonitrile) membrane

Abstract

Abstract Separation of various alcohols and water through a membrane was carried out by means of a hydrogen‐bonding interaction. A membrane obtained from poly(maleimide‐co‐acrylonitrile) was effective for a selective separation of water from aqueous alcohol solution by pervaporation technique. Spectroscopic analyses verified that this high selectivity was attributed to the hydrogen‐bonding interaction between water and maleimide units in the membrane.