A climate change caused by a greenhouse effect is one of the most challenging issues we face today and the development of high performance materials for CO2 separation and capture will significantly contribute to solution of the issue. In order to improve the CO2 separation ability, materials with high CO2 permeability and good permselectivity are needed. However, few materials have been developed to meet the requirement. In our work, a room temperature chemical cross-linking of (Bicycloheptenyl) ethyl terminated polydimethylsiloxane (PDMSPNB) was developed by reacting PDMSPNB with Grubbs-II catalyst in a dichloromethane solution and drying at ambient temperature. The cross-link density was controlled by the ratio of PDMSPNB to Grubbs-II catalyst and was determined by melt rheology measurements. The results showed that both the permeability and selectivity are influenced by cross-link density. The cross-linked PDMSPNB showed excellent CO2 separation capability, high temperature stability and achieved the performance very close to the Robeson upper bound line. Most important, the developed polymers showed extremely high permeability that is crucial for CO2 separation applications. We are targeting now an additional increase in selectivity that will help us to break through the upper bound limit. The study contributes to foster the fundamental understanding of gas transport through polymer membranes for CO2 separation as well as many other applications.

Effect of cross-link density on carbon dioxide separation in PDMS norbornene membranes

249th National Meeting (2015)

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