Performance Improvement of Membranes with Additives, Composites, and Blends for Gas Separation

A special issue of Membranes (ISSN 2077-0375). This special issue belongs to the section "Membrane Chemistry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2023) | Viewed by 2446

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA
Interests: membrane gas separations; polymer membranes; carbon molecular seives; mixed matrix membranes; hollow fiber membrane modules; olefin/paraffin separation; direct fluorination; plasma treatment; direct air capture; gas adsorption; fuel cell membranes; membrane simulation and operation; 3D printing; organic solvent reverse osmosis

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

As membrane-based gas separations are energy-efficient, environmentally benign, and space-intensive processes, they are viably used in practical applications, including nitrogen enrichment, carbon capture, olefin/paraffin separation, natural gas sweetening, helium recovery, and more. Membrane share in the market has increased over the past few decades, competing with traditional operations such as adsorption and cryogenic distillation, which require significant energy for phase inversion. However, gas productivity (or permeability) and gas separation efficiency (or selectivity) of the membranes still need to be upgraded for better operation and industrial adoption. Gas separation performance of the membranes has been improved by incorporating different materials and there is a large room for further studies until now.

This Special Issue aims to set forth the new membranes with additives, composites, blends, or other mixed matrix approaches, and their improvements in gas separation performance. This Special Issue aims to set forth the new membranes with additives, composites, blends, or other mixed matrix approaches, and their improvements in gas separation performance. Also, theoretical understandings or experimental evaluations of gas transport phenomena in composite membranes can be discussed. In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome.

Dr. Won Hee Lee
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • polymer membrane
  • inorganic membrane
  • gas separation
  • composite
  • mixed matrix
  • additive
  • copolymer
  • blend
  • membrane module
  • transport phenomena

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

17 pages, 2690 KiB  
Article
Poly(ethylene oxide)-Based Copolymer-IL Composite Membranes for CO2 Separation
by Dionysios Vroulias, Eirini Staurianou, Theophilos Ioannides and Valadoula Deimede
Membranes 2023, 13(1), 26; https://doi.org/10.3390/membranes13010026 - 25 Dec 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1962
Abstract
Poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO)-based copolymers are at the forefront of advanced membrane materials for selective CO2 separation. In this work, free-standing composite membranes were prepared by blending imidazolium-based ionic liquids (ILs) having different structural characteristics with a PEO-based copolymer previously developed by our [...] Read more.
Poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO)-based copolymers are at the forefront of advanced membrane materials for selective CO2 separation. In this work, free-standing composite membranes were prepared by blending imidazolium-based ionic liquids (ILs) having different structural characteristics with a PEO-based copolymer previously developed by our group, targeting CO2 permeability improvement and effective CO2/gas separation. The effect of IL loading (30 and 40 wt%), alkyl chain length of the imidazolium cation (ethyl- and hexyl- chain) and the nature of the anion (TFSI-, C(CN)3-) on physicochemical and gas transport properties were studied. Among all composite membranes, PEO-based copolymer with 40 wt% IL3-[HMIM][TFSI] containing the longer alkyl chain of the cation and TFSI- as the anion exhibited the highest CO2 permeability of 46.1 Barrer and ideal CO2/H2 and CO2/CH4 selectivities of 5.6 and 39.0, respectively, at 30 °C. In addition, almost all composite membranes surpassed the upper bound limit for CO2/H2 separation. The above membrane showed the highest water vapor permeability value of 50,000 Barrer under both wet and dry conditions and a corresponding H2O/CO2 ideal selectivity value of 1080; values that are comparable with those reported for other highly water-selective PEO-based polymers. These results suggest the potential application of this membrane in hydrogen purification and dehydration of CO2 gas streams. Full article
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