-The effects of preparation parameters on the performance and morphology of polydimethylsiloxane/ polysulfone (PDMS/PSf) membranes were investigated. The PDMS layer is mainly used for sealing the defects of the PSf selective layer. The membrane morphologies were characterized by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The CO 2 /CH 4 separation performance of membranes was studied by a pure gas permeation experimental set up. According to the SEM results, decreasing the water/N,N-dimethylacetamide (DMAc) ratio as the coagulation medium from pure water to mixture of 90 vol.% DMAc and 10 vol.% water resulted in complete disappearance of macrovoids and also a lowering of the membrane selectivity. Permselectivity results showed that the ideal CO 2 /CH 4 separation factor of the membranes was improved by the presence of the non-solvent additive to the polymer solution. It was also observed that reduction of the coagulation bath temperature (CBT) led to elimination of macrovoids which affect gas separation performance. Using methanol as a coagulant resulted in a less selective membrane compared with ethanol and water as coagulants and the CO 2 permeance was about 3 and 9 times greater than with ethanol and water as coagulants, respectively.
Mesoporous MCM-48 silica was synthesized by templating method and the structure of particles was characterized by XRD, TEM and N 2 adsorption techniques. The surface modification of particles in order for introducing into PSF matrix was performed by dimethyldichlorosilane (DMDCS) silylation agent. SEM images of as-synthesized and modified MCM-48/PSF MMMs indicate that in the modified MCM-48 silica particles adhered well to the PSF matrix and that the synthesized MMMs were defect free. The incorporation of MCM-48 particles in to the PSF matrix and also surface coating of these MMMs by polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) were performed. The quality of surface coating was investigated by SEM images and permeability tests. For all gases tested (N 2 , CO 2 , CH 4 and O 2 ), the permeabilities increased in proportion to the weight percent of MCM-48 present in the film and the calculated CO 2 /CH 4 and O 2 / N 2 selectivities of PDMS coated membranes showed enhancement in ideal and actual selectivities both.
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