Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, Vol.48, No.9, 4507-4513, 2009
Preparation of Uniform Microcapsules Containing 1-Octanol for Caprolactam Extraction
This paper presents a novel method to prepare uniform polysulfone (PSF) microcapsules that contain 1-octanol to prevent emulsification when pure I-octanol is used Lis the solvent. In this method, a coaxial microchannel device was designed and N-2 gas was introduced to control the drop size of polymer solution. Uniform microcapsules were successfully prepared and the diameter decreased linearly with the increase of the N-2 flow rate. The pore Volume and I-octanol loading ratio Could be controlled by changing the PSF content In polymer solution. The maximum loading of I-octanol was 6.98 g/g PSF when the pore volume was 8.28 mL/g. The extraction capacity of the prepared microcapsules was determined, and it was found that the uptake of caprolactam was mainly influenced by the I-octanol mass fraction in microcapsules, because the PSF shell did not adsorb much caprolactam. A maximum uptake of 58.8 mg caprolactam/g microcapsule was reached. The extraction kinetics of the prepared microcapsules also was determined. It was determined that the masstransfer rate was determined by inner diffusion. The apparent diffusion coefficient of 9.1 x 10(-11) m(2)/s was obtained.