TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE OF AIR SEPARATION OF LIQUID CRYSTALLINE TRIHEPTYL CELLULOSE/ETHYL CELLULOSE MEMBRANES

Triheptyl cellulose/ethyl cellulose(3/97)binary blend membranes were prepared from tetrahydrofuran,chloroform and dichloromethane solutions and their air separation capabit- ities were studied at different temperatures.With increasing temperature from 25 to 85℃,the flux QOEA of O_2-enriched air(OEA),O_2 permselectivity and the O_2 concentration Yo_2 in the OEA all increase.The membranes show a unique trend in their Yo_2～QOEA relationship,that is,the air separation capability increases simultaneously with the OEA permeation capability.The magnitudes of QOEA and Yo_2 for 17μm-thick membrane after the testg time of 36hours at 70℃ are 5×10^(-4)cm^3 (STP)/s·cm^2 and 37.6%,respectively.The air separation capability depends slightly on membrane forming solvents.

CO_2/N_2 separation using supported ionic liquid membranes with green and cost-effective [Choline][Pro]/PEG200 mixtures

The high price and toxicity of ionic liquids(ILs) have limited the design and application of supported ionic liquid membranes(SILMs) for CO_2 separation in both academic and industrial fields. In this work, [Choline][Pro]/polyethylene glycol 200(PEG200) mixtures were selected to prepare novel SILMs because of their green and costeffective characterization, and the CO_2/N_2 separation with the prepared SILMs was investigated experimentally at temperatures from 308.15 to 343.15 K. The temperature effect on the permeability, solubility and diffusivity of CO_2 was modeled with the Arrhenius equation. A competitive performance of the prepared SILMs was observed with high CO_2 permeability ranged in 343.3–1798.6 barrer and high CO_2/N_2 selectivity from 7.9 to 34.8.It was also found that the CO_2 permeability increased 3 times by decreasing the viscosity of liquids from 370 to38 m Pa·s. In addition, the inherent mechanism behind the significant permeability enhancement was revealed based on the diffusion-reaction theory, i.e. with the addition of PEG200, the overall resistance was substantially decreased and the SILMs process was switched from diffusion-control to reaction-control.

Poly(amide-6-b-ethylene oxide)/[Bmim][Tf2N] blend membranes for carbon dioxide separation

Poly（amide-6-b-ethylene oxide）（Pebax1657）/1-butyl-3-methylimidazo-lium bis[trifluoromethyl）sulfonyl]-imide（[Bmim][Tf2N]） blend membranes with different [Bmim][Tf2N] contents were prepared via solution casting and solvent evaporation method. The permeation properties of the blend membranes for CO2, N2,CH4 and H2 were studied, and the physical properties were characterized by differential scanning calorimeter（DSC） and X-ray diffraction（XRD）. Results showed that [Bmim][Tf2N] was dispersed as amorphous phase in the blend membranes, which caused the decrease of Tg（PE） and crystallinity（PA）. With the addition of [Bmim][Tf2N], the CO2 permeability increased and reached up to approximately 286 Barrer at 40 wt%[Bmim][Tf2N], which was nearly double that of pristine Pebax1657 membrane. The increase of CO2 permeability may be attributed to high intrinsic permeability of [Bmim][Tf2N], the increase of fractional free of volume（FFV） and plasticization effect. However, the CO2 permeability reduced firstly when the [Bmim][Tf2N]content was below 10 wt%, which may be due to that the small ions of [Bmim][Tf2N] in the gap of polymer chain inhibited the flexibility of polymer chain; the interaction between Pebax1657 and [Bmim][Tf2N]decreased the content of EO units available for CO2 transport and led to a more compact structure. For Pebax1657/[Bmim][Tf2N] blend membranes, the permeabilities of N2, H2 and CH4decreased with the increase of feed pressure due to the hydrostatic pressure effect, while CO2 permeability increased with the increase of feed pressure for that the CO2-induced plasticization effect was stronger than hydrostatic pressure effect.