Preparation and characterization of supported ionic liquid membranes based on [BMIM][BF4]/nonsolvent/NMP/P84 for gas separation

• Main Author: Chan, Roseanne Xiao Rong.
• Other Authors: Lua Aik Chong
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/53438
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

In this project, porous P84 membranes were obtained through wet phase inversion technique. Supported ionic liquid membranes (SILMs) were then prepared by impregnating ionic liquid (IL), BMIMBF4, onto the pores of polyimide (P84) membrane. In this work, effects of membrane preparation condition i.e., the use of different nonsolvent types (IPA, ethylene glycol, ethanol and DI water) and the effect of IL layer on the porous P84 membrane, were analyzed. Gas permeation tests were carried out on all SILMs using helium, oxygen and nitrogen to determine the permeance and selectivity of the membranes. Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) was used to study the surface of the SILMs and porous P84 membranes. Lastly, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) was used to study the effects of SILMs after BMIMBF4 had been impregnated. From the results, it was found that the addition of a BMIMBF4 layer onto a porous P84 membrane resulted in a decrease in the permeance of the membrane. Comparing the membrane permeance, SILM prepared from IPA took the longest time to permeate. This was followed by ethylene glycol and then ethanol and DI water in that order. For the comparison of selectivity, SILM prepared from IPA showed the largest value of selectivity for both helium over nitrogen and oxygen over nitrogen. This was followed by DI water, ethanol and finally ethylene glycol. Therefore, membrane prepared by DI water showed great potential as it had high permeance as well as relatively reasonable selectivity value.