Nanostructured membrane material designed for carbon dioxide separation

Abstract In this work carbon dioxide selective membrane materials from a commercially available poly(amide-b-ethylene oxide) (Pebax ® , Arkema) blended with polyethylene glycol ethers are presented. The preferred PEG-ether was PEG-dimethylether (PEG-DME). PEG-DME is well known as a physical solvent for acid gas absorption. It is used under the trade name Genosorb ® in the Selexol ® process (UOP) for acid gas removal from natural gas and synthesis gas. The combination of the liquid absorbent with the multiblock copolymer resulted in mechanically stable films with superior CO 2 separation properties. The addition of 50 wt.% PEG-DME to the copolymer resulted in a 8-fold increase of the carbon dioxide permeability; the CO 2 /H 2 -selectivity increased simultaneously from 9.1 to 14.9. It is shown that diffusivity as well as solubility of carbon dioxide is strongly increased by the blending of the copolymer with PEG-ethers.

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