Polymer membranes are commercially utilized for gas separations, e.g., removal of CO2 from natural gas, H2/CO2 separation in hydrocarbon fuel processing, etc. The membrane should have both good permeability and selectivity. However, these polymer membranes are limited, as defined by Robeson’s upper bound correlation. Furthermore, the current polymer membranes exhibit an aging phenomenon, which can decrease their efficiency. Mixing the polymer matrix with inert fillers can affect the diffusivity and solubility of the polymer membrane. It was reported that the diffusivity of n-alkyl acetate decreased in poly(methyl acrylate) (PMA) filled with silica nanoparticles (NPs), which was consistent with conventional composite theory. Motivated by recent work in filled polymer systems, we are investigating the use of membranes formed by polymer grafted nanoparticles for gas separation. In this work, we synthesized polymer membranes using PMA-grafted silica nanoparticles, prepared by RAFT polymerization. The results showed increases of both diffusivity and solubility of ethyl acetate in these films.

Polymer nanocomposite membrane for gas separation

251st National Meeting (2016)

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