Miscible blend polyethersulfone/polyimide asymmetric membrane crosslinked with 1,3-diaminopropane for hydrogen separation
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2021
Abstract
Efficient purification technology is crucial to fully utilize hydrogen (H-2) as the next generation fuel source. Polyimide (PI) membranes have been intensively applied for H-2 purification but its current separation performance of neat PI membranes is insufficient to fulfill industrial demand. This study employs blending and crosslinking modification simultaneously to enhance the separation efficiency of a membrane. Polyethersulfone (PES) and Co-PI (P84) blend asymmetric membranes have been prepared via dry-wet phase inversion with three different ratios. Pure H-2 and carbon dioxide (CO2) gas permeation are conducted on the polymer blends to find the best formulation for membrane composition for effective H-2 purification. Next, the membrane with the best blending ratio is chemically modified using 1,3-diaminopropane (PDA) with variable reaction time. Physical and chemical characterization of all membranes was evaluated using field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR). Upon 15 min modification, the polymer membrane achieved an improvement on H-2/CO2 selectivity by 88.9%. Moreover, similar membrane has demonstrated the best performance as it has surpassed Robeson's upper bound curve for H-2/CO2 gas pair performance. Therefore, this finding is significant towards the development of H-2-selective membranes with improved performance.
Keywords
Crosslinking, gas separation, Hydrogen, Membrane
Divisions
sch_che
Funders
Universiti Malaya (GPF056A-2018),Universiti Malaya (GPF065A-2018),Universiti Malaya (RU019Q-2017)
Publication Title
Journal of Polymer Engineering
Volume
41
Issue
7
Publisher
De Gruyter
Publisher Location
GENTHINER STRASSE 13, D-10785 BERLIN, GERMANY