Highly CO2-permeable membranes derived from a midblock-sulfonated multiblock polymer after submersion in water

Abstract

To mitigate the effect of atmospheric CO 2 on global climate change, gas separation materials that simultaneously exhibit high CO 2 permeability and selectivity in gas mixtures must be developed. In this study, CO 2 transport through midblock-sulfonated block polymer membranes prepared from four different solvents is investigated. The results presented here establish that membrane morphology and accompanying gas transport properties are sensitive to casting solvent and relative humidity. We likewise report an intriguing observation: submersion of these thermoplastic elastomeric membranes in liquid water, followed by drying prior to analysis, promotes not only a substantial change in membrane morphology, but also a significant improvement in both CO 2 permeability and CO 2 /N 2 selectivity. Measured CO 2 permeability and CO 2 /N 2 selectivity values of 482 Barrer and 57, respectively, surpass the Robeson upper bound, indicating that these nanostructured membranes constitute promising candidates for gas separation technologies aimed at CO 2 capture.

Understanding the Effect of Water on CO2 Adsorption

“…546 In addition, water swelling is often accompanied by disentangle-ment of the membrane polymer chains, similar to unsupported polyamine adsorbents. 460−463 Dai et al 547 investigated the CO 2 separation properties of sulfonated multiblock polymer membranes, referred to as TESET, before and after submersion in water for 24 h and drying under vacuum at room temperature as a function of RH. The membranes were casted from different solvents, including 50/50 v/v cyclohexane/heptane (CH), 85/15 w/w toluene/ isopropyl alcohol (TIPA), chloroform (CF), and tetrahydrofuran (THF).…”

“…The dashed line represents the Robeson upper bound. Reproduced with permission from ref . Copyright 2019 Springer Nature.…”

Rapid and Repetitive Inactivation of SARS‐CoV‐2 and Human Coronavirus on Self‐Disinfecting Anionic Polymers

“…While Nafion is a relatively expensive polymer that is most closely associated with proton‐exchange membrane fuel cells, [ 55 ] both materials have been successfully used in technologies requiring high water solubility and transmission, such as ionic polymer‐metal composites as electroactive media [ 56 ] and gas‐separation membranes for CO 2 removal/capture. [ 57 ] At nanoscale dimensions, both materials exhibit continuous hydrophilic pathways, although those in Nafion are significantly smaller (just a few nanometers across, according to cryoelectron tomography [ 58 ] ) than those formed in the TESET polymers, but they can be selectively swollen by incorporating a hydrophilic (e.g., ionic [ 59 ] ) liquid. Included in Figure 5a are HCoV‐229E titers measured at different exposure times.…”

Carbon Capture From Flue Gas and the Atmosphere: A Perspective

“…Flue gases normally have to be cooled down first for membrane process (Du et al, 2011;Favre, 2011). The separation performance of polymeric membrane materials can be further improved by incorporating or blending organic or inorganic compounds (Du et al, 2011;Dai et al, 2019).…”