Abstract
Petroleum based raw materials shortage leads to investigate renewable raw materials for membrane elaboration. Gelatin, an abundant, industrial by-product is a biosourced polymer with filmogenic properties which makes it an educated choice for “green” membrane production. This thesis work aims at developing gelatin based membrane and studying the influence of the material structure on mechanical and thermal properties, water resistance and gas transport properties. Thus, the elaboration mechanisms by TIG/Dry-cast process were studied in details by establishing the phase diagram of the gelatin/water system. To improve the water resistance of the hydrosoluble gelatin, crosslinking is necessary. Alternative cross-linkers were tested to replace the glutaraldehyde, classified as toxic. Ferulic acid and terephthalaldehyde were promising and showed complementary characteristics. The high crystallinity level of gelatin films, related to their renaturation level, led to rather gas barrier properties. By adding an elastomer, polyetheramine, the permeability to CO2 increased from 1.4 to an outstanding 250 Barrer. The influence of the temperature and relative humidity of the gas flux on permeability was also studied.