Polymer-based membranes play a critical role in sustainability challenges such as access to clean water and CO2 removal/sequestration. The selective transport of each analyte in the feed stream ultimately dictates performance, as defined by the permselectivity of the membrane. We utilize several measurement techniques to assess the intrinsic transport properties of membranes for desalination and CO2 capture. In this talk, we highlight measurements of structure-transport in polyamide-based desalination membranes and polyethyleneimine-based direct air capture membranes. Specifically, polarization-modulated infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy (PM-IRRAS) was used to study the time-dependent uptake and release of analytes (e.g., water, CO2),which we then correlate to membrane properties such as chemistry, crosslink density, and/or thickness. Additionally, we used 13C CPMAS NMR to perform compositional analysis and 1H field cycling NMR to reveal polymer segmental dynamics and water transport.

Measuring transport in polymer-based membranes

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ACS Fall 2022

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