High‐performance thin film composite membranes with well‐defined poly(dimethylsiloxane)‐b‐poly(ethylene glycol) copolymer additives for CO2 separation. Issue 12 (3rd April 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Scofield, Joel M. P.; Gurr, Paul A.; Kim, Jinguk; Fu, Qiang; Halim, Andri; Kentish, Sandra E.; Qiao, Greg G.
• Is Part Of: Journal of polymer science. Volume 53:Issue 12(2015:Jun.)
• Page Start: 1500
• Page End: 1511
• Publication Date: 2015-04-03
• Subjects: block copolymers -- gas permeation -- poly(ethylene glycol) -- polysiloxanes -- thin film composite membrane; 547
• DOI: 10.1002/pola.27628
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0887-624X

Abstract

ABSTRACT: A series of well‐defined diblock copolymers (BCPs) consisting of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) and poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) were synthesized and blended with commercially available PEBAX® 2533 to form the active layer of thin‐film composite (TFC) membranes, via spin‐coating. BCPs with a PEG component ranging from 1 to 10 kDa and a PDMS component ranging from 1 to 10 kDa were synthesized by a facile condensation reaction of hydroxyl terminated PEG and carboxylic acid functionalized PDMS. The BCP/PEBAX® 2533 blends up to 50 wt % on cross‐linked PDMS gutter layers were tested at 35 °C and 350 kPa. TFC membranes containing BCPs of 1 kDa PEG and 1–5 kDa PDMS produced optimal results with CO2 permeances of approximately 1000 GPU which is an increase up to 250% of the permeance of pure PEBAX® 2533 composite membranes, while maintaining a CO2 /N2 selectivity of 21. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem.2015, 53, 1500–1511 Abstract : A series of well‐defined diblock copolymers containing polyethylene oxide and poly(dimethylsiloxane) are produced for use as an additive in the selective layer of thin‐film composite polymeric membranes. These polymers show the successful formation of membranes with improved performance which can be controlled by polymer composition and molecular weight. Membranes formed showed fluxes up to 250% of the flux of the base selective layer material.