Advanced Composite Membranes with Layered Fillers for Gas Separation

Advanced Composite Membranes with Layered Fillers for Gas Separation

Dan Zhao*

Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering,

National University of Singapore, 117585 Singapore

E-mail: chezhao@nus.edu.sg

Gas separation technologies, especially for CO₂ separation, have attracted increased attention recently because of their important applications in clean energy and environmental sustainability. Compared to other CO₂ separation technologies, membrane-based CO₂ separation has been greatly developed in recent years. In order to combine the merits of both polymeric and inorganic membranes, mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) were invented by dispersing porous fillers into continuous polymeric matrices hoping to increase the permeability and selectivity of the resulting membranes while preserving the properties of good mechanical strength and processability of the polymeric matrices. In this talk, I will introduce our work in preparing MMMs containing lamellar MOF or COF fillers with high-aspect-ratio, which exhibit good gas separation performance because of the increased tortuosity of gas permeation paths imposed by lamellar fillers. In addition, I will also discuss the direct fabrication of ultrathin membranes composed of 2D nanosheets. Because of their ultra-small thickness and precisely tunable pore size and functionality, these novel membranes may demonstrate unprecedented gas separation performance.

References

1.      Kang, Z. X.; Peng, Y. W.; Qian, Y. H.; Yuan, D. Q.; Addicoat, M. A.; Heine, T.; Hu, Z. G.; Tee, L.; Guo, Z. G.; Zhao, D.* Mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) comprising exfoliated 2D covalent organic frameworks (COFs) for efficient CO₂ separation. Chem. Mater. 2016, 28, 1277-1285.

2.      Kang, X. Z.; Peng, Y. W.; Hu, Z. G.; Qian, Y. H.; Chi, C. L.; Yeo, L. Y.; Tee, L.; Zhan, D.* Mixed matrix membranes comprising two-dimensional metal-organic framework nanosheets for pre-combustion CO₂ capture: a relationship study of filler morphology versus membrane performance. J. Mater. Chem. A 2015, 3, 20801-20810.