Carbon nanotube arrays hybrid membrane with excellent separation performance and conductivity

Abstract

Hybrid materials based on carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and polymers have shown attractive properties and potential applications. However, the poor quality and aggregation of CNTs are challenging during the preparation of hybrid materials. To address these issues, we fabricated the vertically aligned (VA) CNT (open-end) hybrid membrane with annealing treatment, which significantly improves the phenol separation performance, single gas permeability of CO2 and N2, and binary CO2/N2 mixture separation performance. The free volume provided by the orderly CNT channels and their atomically smooth walls contribute to the markedly increased diffusion rate and permeability of the membrane. The density functional theory (DFT) calculations indicate that the small molecules in the membrane preferentially transport along the internal channels of CNTs. Furthermore, this membrane also has excellent conductivity and resistance stability after 50 cycles of tensile deformation. For the first time, it reveals that this unique structured CNTs membrane can be applied in environmental, gas separation, and electronics fields with superior performance.