Enhancement of CO₂ permeation properties of polymeric membrane by incorporating metal organic framework

Abstract

This research work focuses on the fabrication of mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) for the enhancement of CO2 removal from CH4. Zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF-8) with a framework of 0.34 nm pore size which favours CO2 adsorption is used as filler in this work. Different loadings of ZIF-8 filler were incorporated into polysulfone (PSf) polymer matrix. From the EDX mapping, the morphology of the ZIF-8/PSf MMMs has shown compatibility between the polymer and filler phases. The MMMs demonstrated an increment of 8°C in glass transition temperature, Tg compared to the pure PSf. Based on the permeation results, MMM loaded with 1 wt% of ZIF-8 showed the highest performance with CO2 and CH4 permeability of 33.12 Barrer and 0.85 Barrer respectively, and CO2/CH4 ideal selectivity of 38.8. The development of this new type of MMM has great potential to be utilized in CO2/CH4 separation process.