Hydrazine, a hygroscopic liquid, needs to be dehydrated for its utilization as rocket propellant. The conventional processes of separation are cumbersome, as hydrazine forms an azeotrope with water apart from being explosive and highly alkaline. Pervaporation is a well-established safe, energy intensive process for separation of azeotrope mixtures. The selection of polymer for separation of hydrazine and water is of major concern as hydrazine is highly alkaline with pH of ∼13.6. Ethyl cellulose (EC) polymer withstands the high pH without any physical deformation or color change. Further, to increase the permselectivity, zeolite 4A nanoparticles were incorporated into the EC polymer matrix. The major focus of the present study was synthesis of zeolite 4A nanoparticles and preparation of ethyl cellulose- zeolite 4A mixed matrix membranes (MMMs). The zeolite particles and membranes were characterized using XRD and FTIR. The characteristics of the membranes were further observed by measuring contact angles. The pervaporation results were quite promising as the total permeate flux and selectivity were 18.35 g/m²h and 8.46 at 36 wt% of feed water concentration with the MMMs with highest zeolite loading. The performance of the MMM’s was comparatively better than pristine EC.

肼是一种吸湿性液体，需要脱水才能用作火箭推进剂。传统的分离过程很麻烦，因为肼除了具有爆炸性和强碱性之外，还能与水形成共沸物。渗透蒸发是一种行之有效的安全、高能耗的共沸混合物分离工艺。用于分离肼和水的聚合物的选择是主要关注的问题，因为肼是强碱性的，pH 值约为 13.6。乙基纤维素 (EC) 聚合物可承受高 pH 值而不会发生任何物理变形或颜色变化。此外，为了提高渗透选择性，将沸石 4A 纳米颗粒加入到 EC 聚合物基质中。本研究的主要重点是合成沸石 4A 纳米颗粒和制备乙基纤维素-沸石 4A 混合基质膜 (MMM)。使用 XRD 和 FTIR 表征沸石颗粒和膜。通过测量接触角进一步观察膜的特性。渗透蒸发结果非常有希望，因为总渗透通量和选择性为 18.35 g/m²小时和 8.46 在 36 wt% 的进料水浓度下，MMMs 具有最高沸石负载。MMM 的性能相对优于原始 EC。