High gas permselectivity in ZIF‐302/polyimide self‐consistent mixed‐matrix membrane

• Published in: Journal of applied polymer science Vol. 137; no. 13
• Main Authors: Ghanem, Akram S., Ba‐Shammakh, Mohamed, Usman, Muhammad, Khan, M. Faizan, Dafallah, Hatim, Habib, Mohamed A. M., Al‐Maythalony, Bassem A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken, USA John Wiley & Sons, Inc 05.04.2020; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
• Subjects: Carbon dioxide; Gas separation; Gas transport; Ideal gas; Materials science; Membranes; Metal-organic frameworks; Methane; mixed matrix membranes; polyimide; Polymers; Selectivity; Zeolites; zeolitic imidazolate frameworks
• ISSN: 0021-8995; 1097-4628
• DOI: 10.1002/app.48513

ABSTRACT Zeolitic imidazolate framework‐302 (ZIF‐302) was incorporated within a polyimide (PI) matrix in order to develop a highly selective and permeable mixed‐matrix membrane (MMM) for gas separation processes. On the basis of varying fabrication procedures, two different MMMs were formed: a dense MMM (ZIF‐302/d‐PI) and a spongy, self‐consistent MMM (ZIF‐302/s‐PI). The spongy membrane was shown to have self‐consistent and disconnected pores with a reduction in overall membrane density. For ZIF‐302/d‐PI, a 1.2–1.5‐fold increase in the permeability of H2, O2, N2, CO2, and CH4 was observed when compared with the pure d‐PI membrane. For ZIF‐302/s‐PI, even better improvements (up to 19‐fold higher) in permeance were achieved with negligible effects on selectivity. The gas transport mechanism was then analyzed and showed a considerable enhancement of diffusion coefficients for ZIF‐302/s‐PI, while ideal gas pair selectivities for CO2/N2, H2/CH4, and H2/N2 were found to be 24.8, 42.3, and 62.6, respectively. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2020, 137, 48513.