Imidazolium-containing poly(ionic liquid) (PIL) networks were prepared using thiol-ene ‘click’ photopolymerization for the purposes of investigating their conductive and gas separation properties. Commercially available multifunctional thiols were photopolymerized with synthesized imidazolium-containing ‘ene’ monomers. Variations in ‘ene’ functionality and thiol:ene ratio resulted in PILs with a wide range of thermal, mechanical and conductive properties. Overall, PILs employing the [NTf2] counteranion were found to exhibit promising conductivities with the values in the range of 10-6 to 10-5 S/cm at 30 °C at 30% RH. PIL films which contained a small amount of imidazolium-containing, monofunctional ‘ene’ exhibited slightly higher ionic conductivities and lower Tg values. The ability of these PILs to separate carbon dioxide from nitrogen and methane was explored using a time-lag measurement apparatus. PIL membranes for gas separation studies were prepared on a PVDF support and the resulting composites exhibited relatively low CO2 permeability, however the CO2/N2 and CO2/CH4 selectivities were found to be very encouraging. The results from these studies will be discussed.

Imidazolium-containing thiol-ene poly(ionic liquid) membrane networks: Conductive and gas separation properties

255th National Meeting (2018)

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