Construction of amphiphilic networks in blend membranes for CO2 separation

• Published in: The Korean journal of chemical engineering Vol. 40; no. 1; pp. 175 - 184
• Main Authors: Wang, Jiangnan, Lv, Xia, Huang, Lu, Li, Long, Li, Xueqin, Zhang, Jinli
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.01.2023; Springer Nature B.V; 한국화학공학회
• Subjects: Biotechnology; Carbon dioxide; Catalysis; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Gas separation; Industrial Chemistry/Chemical Engineering; Materials Science; Membranes; Networks; Polymers; Polystyrene resins; Separation Technology; Thermodynamics; 화학공학; Pebax; Blend Membrane; Separation; CO; Amphiphilic Polymer; PEDOT:PSS
• ISSN: 0256-1115; 1975-7220
• DOI: 10.1007/s11814-022-1236-7

Blend membranes have attracted great attention because they can combine the advantages of different polymers. To investigate the effect of amphiphilic polymer on the separation performance of blend membranes, a series of blend membranes were designed and fabricated by blending an amphiphilic polymer of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) into poly(ether-block-amide) (Pebax) polymer for CO 2 separation. For the as-prepared Pebax/PEDOT:PSS blend membranes, the interconnected CO 2 -philic networks were constructed by hydrophilic anionic chains of PSS − for accelerating CO 2 transport. Meanwhile, non-CO 2 -philic networks were constructed by the hydrophobic cationic chains of PEDOT + , which distributed around the PSS − chains to provide low friction diffusion for CO 2 . Therefore, the amphiphilic polymer of PEDOT:PSS was an excellent material for improving CO 2 separation performance of blend membranes. The results showed that the Pebax/PEDOT:PSS blend membranes were endowed with excellent CO 2 separation performance. Pebax/PEDOT:PSS blend membrane demonstrated the optimal separation performance with a CO 2 permeability of 440.2±3.3 Barrer and a CO 2 /CH 4 separation factor of 28±0.6. This study indicates that introducing the amphiphilic polymer into the blend membranes is an efficient strategy for gas separation.