β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) filled poly(ether block amide) (PEBA) membranes (β-CD-f-PEBA) were prepared by solution casting method to recover phenol from dilute solution by pervaporation (PV). The physicochemical structure of the membrane was studied by SEM and FTIR. The results showed that the β-CD were dispersed uniformly within the polymer phase and a good adherence was obtained between the β-CD and PEBA just by physical crosslinking. The mechanical properties of the membrane were tested by tensile test. Effect of the phenol concentration and β-CD concentration on the swelling behavior were studied in terms of degree of swelling (DS). The swelling experiments indicated that DS increased significantly both with the phenol concentration in feed solutions and the β-CD concentration in PEBA basic membranes. The solubility parameters of PEBA

phenol and water were calculated by the group-contribution method. The solubility parameter difference between PEBA and phenol was smaller than that between PEBA and water

which meant the PEBA owned high phenol selectivity than water. The adsorption and diffusion separation factor of the β-CD-f-PEBA membrane was used to conform the controlling step of the PV process. The PV performance of β-CD-f-PEBA membrane were investigated at different operating conditions. With the increase of β-CD content

the β-CD-f-PEBA membranes displayed significant improvement in the permeation flux and the separation factor. The β-CD-f-PEBA membrane containing 0.5% (mass) β-CD showed the best separation results with a total flux and separation factor of 3062.9 g·m-2·h-1 and 43.3

respectively. With increasing temperature

both the total flux and separation factor increased. The activity energies of phenol and water flux were calculated according to Arrhenius equation with values of 97.19 kJ·mol-1 and 52.12 kJ·mol-1

respectively. The result of repeated experiments showed good long term stability of β-CD-f-PEBA films.