Beyond Upper Bound: Toward High Separation Performance Hybrid Membranes

Beyond Upper Bound: Toward High Separation Performance Hybrid Membranes

Authors: Yifan Li, Guangwei He, Shaofei Wang, Shengnan Yu, Fusheng Pan, Hong Wu, Dong Yang and Zhongyi Jiang*

Key Laboratory for Green Chemical Technology of Ministry of Education School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, 300072, P. R. China

Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering (Tianjin), Tianjin 300072, China

[*]   Corresponding author and presenter: zhyjiang@tju.edu.cn

Abstract Hybrid membranes comprising continuous polymer phase and dispersed inorganic filler phase have been extensively studied in diverse separation processes including gas separation and pervaporation. The multiphase characteristics of composite membranes render more degree of freedom to manipulate multiple interactions, tailor multiscale structures, and integrate multiple functionalities, thus win the much more chance in solving the tradeoff relation between permeability and selectivity. In this presentation, we will describe the various methods for the fabrication of hybrid membranes including physical blending method, sol–gel method, biomimetic mineralization method and biomimetic adhesion method. For each method, the major advances and challenges have been summarized. The application of hybrid membranes in carbon capture, ethanol dehydration and gasoline desulfurization will be illustrated. Future directions toward designing advanced hybrid membranes with tunable structures and high separation performances are proposed tentatively.

Key words� Hybrid membranes, Fabrication, Pervaporation, Gas separation, Tradeoff relation.