Development of thermoplastic polyurethane/polyaniline-doped membranes for the separation of glycine through electrodialysis

Abstract

Recently, membrane-based separation processes, particularly electrodialysis, have attracted attention for theseparation and purification of organic and amino acids from animal feedstock waste. In this study, cation exchangemembranes were synthesized by making a composite of thermoplastic polyurethane and polyaniline (PANI) via thedoping of various aromatic sulfonic acids, such as β -naphthol sulfonic acid and phenol sulfonic acid. The PANI wasprepared using a standard method, which was further used in the composite blending at varying concentrations of 10%–20%. The impact of the concentration of PANI and the nature of the dopant on the membrane characteristics werecomparatively studied. The membranes were analyzed by electric conductivity, water swelling, morphological studies(SEM), and thermogravimetric analysis. The membranes were used for the separation of glycine hydrochloride viaelectrodialysis.