We report a high performance and CO 2 -philic, comb copolymer consisting of poly(ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylate (PEGMA), polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) and poly(N,N-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate) (PDMAEMA) for use in composite membranes for CO 2 /N 2 separation. Since the copolymers contain ethylene oxide (EO) groups and amino groups, the separation performance was expected to be enhanced by the synergistic effect of (1) the increased solubility of CO 2 by dipole-dipole interactions between CO 2 and EO units and (2) the enhanced CO 2 transport by reversible reactions between CO 2 and amino groups. The best separation performance was obtained from the PEDM5 composite membrane with 25 mol% of PEGMA, at which the CO 2 permeability was 308 Barrer and CO 2 /N 2 selectivity was 38, which displays a potentially promising alternative for CO 2 separation from N 2 . 3 support to prepare composite membranes, and the performance of the composite in CO 2 /N 2 separation was tested at 25 °C. We expected that our work may provide a facile approach for the rational design of membrane materials and efficient intensification of membrane separation performance.Scheme 1 Synthesis of the P(PEGMA-co-DEAEMA-co-MMA) comb copolymer Scheme 2. Schematic illustration for the preparation of P(PEGMA-co-DEAEMA-co-MMA) composite membranes
Experimental
MaterialPoly(ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylate (PEGMA, Mn = 500 g/mol) and methyl methacrylate (MMA, Mn = 100 g/mol) were supplied by Aladdin.PEDM copolymer membrane showed excellent gas separation performance through synergistic effect of EO and amino