Tuning microcavities in thermally rearranged polymer membranes for CO2 capture

S. H. Han; H. J. Kwon; K. Y. Kim; J. G. Seong; C. H. Park; S. Kim; C. M. Doherty; A. W. Thornton; A. J. Hill; Á. E. Lozano; K. A. Berchtold; Y. M. Lee

doi:10.1039/C2CP23729F

Tuning microcavities in thermally rearranged polymer membranes for CO₂ capture†

S. H. Han,^ab H. J. Kwon,^a K. Y. Kim,^a J. G. Seong,^c C. H. Park,^c S. Kim,^a C. M. Doherty,^b A. W. Thornton,^b A. J. Hill,^bd Á. E. Lozano,^e K. A. Berchtold^f and Y. M. Lee*^ac

Author affiliations

* Corresponding authors

^a School of Chemical Engineering, College of Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
E-mail: ymlee@hanyang.ac.kr

^b Division of Materials Science and Engineering (CMSE), Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Clayton, Australia

^c WCU Department of Energy Engineering, College of Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

^d Division of Process Science and Engineering (CPSE), Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Clayton, Australia

^e Instituto de Polímeros, ICTP-CSIC, Juan de la Cierva 3, 28006 Madrid, Spain

^f Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, USA

Abstract

Microporous materials have a great importance in catalysis, delivery, storage and separation in terms of their performance and efficiency. Most microporous materials are comprised of inorganic frameworks, while thermally rearranged (TR) polymers are a microporous organic polymer which is tuned to optimize the cavity sizes and distribution for difficult separation applications. The sub-nano sized microcavities are controlled by in situ thermal treatment conditions which have been investigated by positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy (PALS). The size and relative number of cavities increased from room temperature to 230 °C resulting in improvements in both permeabilities and selectivities for H₂/CO₂ separation due to the significant increase of gas diffusion and decrease of CO₂ solubility. The highest performance of the well-tuned TR-polymer membrane was 206 Barrer for H₂ permeability and 6.2 of H₂/CO₂ selectivity, exceeding the polymeric upper bound for gas separation membranes.

Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics

Tuning microcavities in thermally rearranged polymer membranes for CO₂ capture†

Abstract

Supplementary files

Article information

Download Citation

Permissions

Tuning microcavities in thermally rearranged polymer membranes for CO₂ capture

Social activity

Search articles by author

Spotlight

Advertisements

Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics