(2bu) Advanced Polymer-Derived Membranes for Pre-Combustion CO2 Capture and Blue H2 Production

My research interests mainly include membrane-based gas separations and CO₂ capture. Membranes technology features high intrinsic energy efficiency, low footprint and easy operation, and can be a promising alternative to conventional energy-intensive thermally-driven processes for gas separations, such as pre-combustion carbon capture combined with blue H₂ production from methane reforming or coal gasification. The separation of H₂ from CO₂ is a critical step for this process to be economically competitive. Here, I devoted his research to rationale designing advanced polymer-based membranes for H₂/CO₂ separation, and have developed three methodologies: 1) building polybenzimidazole (PBI)-based supramolecular polymer works with enhanced molecular sieving ability to detain the diffusion of big CO₂ molecules in the membrane; 2) developing carbon molecular sieve membranes containing abundant sub-3.3 â„« ultramicropores to sieve H₂ from CO₂; 3) Introducing branched Pd nanorods with controlled aspect ratios in PBI film to achieve three-dimensional percolated Pd networks that can facilitate H₂ transport at minimal loadings. Besides, I also extend my research to membrane reactors containing H₂-selective membranes for water-gas shift reaction and methane reforming.