Microwave-induced ultrafast crosslinking of Poly (vinyl alcohol) blended with nanoparticles as wave absorber for pervaporation desalination

Although pervaporation (PV) membranes based on crosslinked polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) exhibit high desalination performance, the thermal crosslinking process often takes several hours. Here, we report a microwave assisted method to reduce the crosslinking duration. Moreover, to the PVA crosslinking system, a MOF particle, UIO-66, was added to increase the microwave absorbing efficiency and improve the desalination property. As a result, the PVA crosslinking time decreased to 2 min and the water flux increased by 67% compared with the plain crosslinked PVA membrane.