Correlation and prediction of gas permeability in glassy polymer membrane materials via a modified free volume based group contribution method

Abstract

Over the past decade or more an extensive amount of data on the permeation of gases such as helium, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, methane, and carbon dioxide in a wide array of glassy polymers has been published. Much of this work has been motivated by the search for materials with high permeability and high selectivity for potential use as gas separation membranes. This paper attempts to develop a method for correlating this data in a way that permits prediction of permselectivity behavior of other polymer structures. The method used involves an empirical modification of a free volume scheme that has been used in the past with some success. The previous method requires an experimental density of the polymer and an estimate of occupied volume from a group contribution method developed by Bondi. The present method actually predicts the density and uses a refined estimate of occupied volume specific to each gas. The parameters in the model were deduced from a database including over one hundred polymers. The new method significantly improves the accuracy of correlation and of prediction.