Effect of composition and nanostructure on CO2/N2 transport properties of supported alkyl-imidazolium block copolymer membranes

CATEGORY: IONIC LIQUIDS
Journal of Membrane Science, Volume 430, 1 March 2013, Pages 312–320
Effect of composition and nanostructure on CO2/N2 transport properties of supported alkyl-imidazolium block copolymer membranes
Phuc Tien Nguyen (a), Erin F. Wiesenauer (b), Douglas L. Gin (a), (b), Richard D. Noble (a)
a Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309-0424, United States
b Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309-0215, United States
Abstract
Polymerized room-temperature ionic liquids (poly(RTIL)s) represent new and interesting membrane materials for CO₂/light gas separations, due to a combination of high CO₂ affinity and thermal and chemical stability of RTILs, with the physical and mechanical properties of polymeric materials.
Researchers synthesized a novel block copolymer (BCP) combining an imidazolium-based poly(RTIL) and an alkyl non-ionic polymer. These alkyl-b-ionic BCPs phase-separate into ordered nanostructures. Prior work investigating gas transport through phase-separated BCPs is very limited, and none has included RTIL-based BCP systems. However it has been shown that nanoscale phase-separation could facilitate gas transport via nanostructure orientation control or phase connectivity improvement. Researchers succeeded in making defect-free, thin-film composite membranes with these novel alkyl-imidazolium BCPs as a 3–20 μm thick top layer, and determined their CO₂/N₂ separation properties via single-gas permeability measurements and selectivity calculations.
Full Text Source (Subscription or Fee): http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S037673881200926X