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Silica Nanohybrid Membranes with High CO2 Affinity for Green Hydrogen Purification |
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| Authors: | Cher Hon Lau Songlin Liu Donald R Paul Jianzhong Xia Yan‐Ching Jean Hongmin Chen Lu Shao Tai‐Shung Chung |
| Institution: | 1. Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore, 4 Engineering Drive 4, 117576 Singapore;2. Department of Chemical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station C0400, Austin TX 7812‐0231, USA;3. Department of Chemistry, University of Missouri—Kansas City, 5100 Rockhill Road, Kansas City, MO 64110, USA;4. School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment (SKLUWRE), Harbin Institute of Technology, 150001, PR China |
| Abstract: | An effective separation of CO2 from H2 can be achieved using currently known polyethylene oxide (PEO)‐based membranes at low temperatures but the CO2 permeability is inadequate for commerical operations. For commercial‐scale CO2/H2 separation, CO2 permeability of these membranes must be significantly enhanced without compromising CO2/H2 selectivity. We report here exceptional CO2/H2 separation properties of a nanohybrid membrane comprising polyethylene glycol methacrylate (PEGMA) grafts on an organic‐inorganic membrane (OIM) consisting of a low molecular weight polypropylene oxide (PPO)‐PEO‐PPO diamine and 3‐glycidyloxypropyltrimethoxysilane (GOTMS), an alkoxysilane. The CO2 gas permeability of this nanohybrid membrane can reach 1990 Barrer with a CO2/H2 selectivity of 11 at 35 °C for a mixed gas mixture comprising 50% CO2 ‐ 50% H2 at 3.5 atm. The transformation of the inorganic silica phase from a well‐dispersed network of finely defined nanoparticles to rough porous clusters appears to be responsible for this OIM membrane exceeding the performance of other state‐of‐the‐art PEO‐based membranes. |
| Keywords: | gas separation hydrogen purification membrane materials silica nanocomposites |