Correlation Between Polymer Packing And Gas Transport Properties For Co2/N2 Separation In Glassy Fluorinated Polyimide Membrane

• Main Authors: Tan, P. C., Jawad, Z. A., Ooi, B. S., Ahmad, A. L., Low, S. C.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Taylor's University 2016
• Subjects: TJ1-1570 Mechanical engineering and machinery
• Online Access: http://eprints.usm.my/38534/1/CORRELATION_BETWEEN_POLYMER_PACKING_AND_GAS.pdf; http://eprints.usm.my/38534/; http://jestec.taylors.edu.my/Vol%2011%20issue%207%20July%202016/11_7_2.pdf
• Institution: Universiti Sains Malaysia

Gas separation performance of a membrane highly hinges on its physical properties. In this study, the interplay between polymer packing of a membrane and its gas transport behaviours (permeability and selectivity) was investigated through a series of 6FDA-DAM:DABA (3:2) polyimide membranes with different polymer compactness. The chemical structure and the polymer packing of the resulting membrane were characterized using attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) and packing density measurement, respectively. CO2/N2 separation efficiency of the membrane was evaluated at 25oC with feed pressure up to 6 bar. N2 permeability was found to rely on the membrane’s packing density, which signified its greater dependence on molecular sieving. In contrast, sorption showed a more vital role in determining the CO2 permeability. In this work, the membrane with a final thickness of 97±2 μm had successfully surpassed the Robeson’s 2008 upper bound plot with a CO2 permeability of 83 Barrer and CO2/N2 selectivity of 97 at 3 bar permeation.