At present, the high energy consumption, high capital cost and potential environmental impact have limited the development of many carbon capture technologies. Membrane technology lies at the heart of many industrial gas separation processes and applications. Molecular sieving membranes that break the Robeson limit are desirable for energy-efficient gas separation. Herein, we report a facile strategy of directly integrating ionic liquids (ILs) into porous membranes. Particularly, the ILs form an ultra-thin layer on the carbon molecular sieve (CMS) membranes rather than penetrating into the pores, acting as a smart gate for gas entry to boost the selectivity. The hybrid membrane exhibits CO2 permeability &gt; 600 barrer and enhanced CO2/N2 selectivity &gt; 50, which surpasses the Robeson limit and shows potential in CO2/N2 separation process. Molecular dynamics simulations confirm the gating effect of the IL layer of molecular thickness. This work demonstrates a universal strategy to improve CMS membrane performance by creating an IL-membrane interface and tuning the ion-pore interaction. We anticipate this methodology enlarges the possible strategies to improve CO2 separation performance of various porous materials.

Ion-gated carbon molecular sieve membranes for enhanced gas separation that surpass the Robeson limit

Macromolecular Chemistry: The Second Century

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ACS Spring 2020 National Meeting & Expo

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.