Abstract
A strategy is reported that combines assembled nanostructures and solvent vapor treatment to manipulate the gas permeability of graft copolymer membranes. The VC-g-POEM graft copolymer consists of poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) main chains and poly(oxyethylene methacrylate) (POEM) side chains, and was synthesized via atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). When the PVC-g-POEM membrane was treated with a good solvent vapor such as acetone, the CO2 permeability increased from 107 to 145 Barrer (1 Barrer=10−10 cm3(STP)·cm·cm−2·s−1·cmHg−1), which is approximately a 36% improvement compared to an untreated sample. However, the permeability was significantly reduced from 107 to 45 and 38 Barrer upon being treated with a selective (methanol) or poor solvent (hexane). The structure-property relation of the solvent-vapor-treated membranes was investigated using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) analysis.
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