Natural Gas Separation Using Thermally Rearranged Polymers - Characterizing Morphological Changes Of Hab-6FDA Polymer Structures

The pre-treatment of natural gas is the world’s largest industrial separation. Polymer membranes with ideal transport properties can overcome the drawbacks of existing separation technologies. Thermally Rearranged (TR) polymers have excellent transport properties due to their free volume elements. This research studied free volume properties and shrinkage for various TR polymers to determine the ideal factors that influence transport properties and maximize mass scale production capability. Free volume correlations were interpreted using density findings.
As temperature and holding time increased, free volume for HAB-6FDA-CI increased, while free volume decreased for HAB-6FDA-TI. As temperature increased, shrinkage did as well. Furthermore, there was an optimal conversion temperature between 400°C and 425°C for HAB-6FDA-CI, resulting in minimum shrinkage but superior transport properties. HAB-6FDA–TI polymers would also be well suited for mass production. In summary, this research helped find the ideal parameters and relationships to maximize transport properties and find effective TR polymers.