(129c) New Membranes Structures and Compositions Effective for CO2 Separation and Capture

This presentation covers new structures and compositions for carbon dioxide-selective membranes, including (1) polymer and polymer blend membranes, (2) mixed matrix membranes, and (3) inorganic/polymer composite membranes.

We have synthesized membranes with polyamide-polyethylene oxide (PA-PEO) copolymer blended with polyethylene glycol dimethyl ether (PEG-DME) or polyethylene glycol (PEG).  We have also synthesized a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) membrane reproducibly with good separation performance, which can be used as a cover layer for inorganic/polymer composite membranes.

We have dispersed zeolite-Y nanoparticles in PA-PEO/PEG-DME and PDMS solutions to synthesize the mixed matrix membranes, which can be used as the cover layers for inorganic/polymer composite membranes.  The membranes showed a higher CO₂/N₂ selectivity than PDMS alone.

We have designed and synthesized inorganic/polymer composite membranes, which consisted of a thin selective inorganic layer embedded in a polymer structure.  Zeolite-Y/polymer composite membranes were synthesized successfully by coating a polymeric cover layer containing amines on the zeolite-Y nanoparticles deposited on a nanoporous polymer support.  The resulting membrane showed a CO₂ permeance greater than 1100 GPU and a CO₂/N₂ selectivity above 400 at 102^oC.  Si-1/polymer composite membranes were also synthesized successfully by coating a PA-PEO/PEG-DME blend or PA-PEO/PEG blend as the cover layer on both Si-1 particles/polymer support and Si-1/PDMS/polymer support multilayer structures.  The syntheses and transport properties of the membranes will be presented and discussed.