PEG‐Imbedded PEO Membrane Developed by a Novel Highly Efficient Strategy Toward Superior Gas Transport Performance

Abstract

Low-molecular-weight poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) is deliberately incorporated into synthesized swellable poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) membranes via a facile post-treatment strategy. The membranes exhibit both larger fractional free volume (FFV) and a higher content of CO2-philic building units, resulting in significant increments in both CO2 permeability and CO2/H2 selectivity. The separation performance correlates nicely with the microstructure of the membranes. This study may provide useful insights in the formation and mass transport behavior of highly efficient polymeric membranes applicable to clean energy purification and CO2 capture, and possibly bridge the material-induced technology gap between academia and industry.

Elimination of the Crystallinity of Long Polyethylene Oxide‐Based Copolymers for Gas Separation Membranes by Using Electron Beam Irradiation

“…Permeation tests were carried out in order to analyze the effect of the elimination of crystallinity by electron beam irradiation on the separation properties. In general, higher amount of PEO in the sample will increase the permeability of the samples . In this sense, nonirradiated copolymer PEO‐44 does not shows good gas permeation properties, thus permeation studies were not carried out on this material.…”

Advances in high carbon dioxide separation performance of poly (ethylene oxide)-based membranes

“…These membranes showed a high gas separation performance. Quan et al [81] reported a new method to enhance gas separation performance. They incorporated low molecular weight PEG to make cross-linked PEO membranes swellable.…”

Synthesis of crosslinked PEG/IL blend membrane via one‐pot thiol–ene/epoxy chemistry

“…A series of crosslinked PEG membranes based on the epoxy–amine reaction for CO 2 capture have been reported . Thanks to the CO 2 ‐philic ethylene oxide (EO) units, the CO 2 permeability of the neat crosslinked PEG membranes reaches 180 Barrer with high CO 2 /light gas selectivity .…”

“…With the presence of the liquid additives, the concentration of reactive functional groups inside monomer mixture is further diluted, which increases the difficulty to complete the reaction. To address this issue, Shao and coworkers employed a two‐step method to incorporate free‐PEG into the crosslinked PEG membranes, where the PEG membranes were prepared via a thermal‐induced epoxy–amine reaction, then the membranes were immersed into aqueous PEG solution to obtain the PEG‐imbedded membranes . A CO 2 permeability of up to 1301 Barrer has been reported accompanied with a CO 2 /H 2 selectivity of 13 after imbedding free PEG into the crosslinked PEG membranes, which makes it very promising for various CO 2 separation applications.…”