Mixed Matrix Membrane Development for CO2 Capture

Mixed matrix membranes (MMM) have the potential to achieve high performance to capture CO₂ from flue gas. The most difficult challenge is fabricating defect free and optimized MMMs. Defects are generally due to incompatible interfaces between the polymer and the filler particle. Here, we present the fabrication of defect-free MMM by engineering the polymers and metal organic frameworks. Thermal, mechanical and gas transport properties confirmed the improved interaction between the polymer and the MOFs. Also, an attempt was made to fundametally understand the gas transport through the MMMs. MMMs showed significantly enhanced CO₂ permeability and CO₂/N₂ selectivity compared to the pure polymer membranes. These results confirm the success of the proposed technique to mitigate defective Polymer/MOF interfaces. The potential polymers and MMMs were coated on the porous hollow fibers supports using dip coating technique and gas separation performance testing of these thin membranes under flue gas conditions showed the stable CO₂ permeability and CO₂/N₂ selectivity.