Fabrication of defect-free Matrimid® asymmetric membranes and the elevated temperature application for N2/SF6 separation

Abstract

N2/SF6 mixtures have been widely used in gas-insulated equipment. Highly efficient separation approaches are urgently required to recycle SF6 from the mixtures during equipment maintenance. Gas separation with glassy polymeric membranes is regarded as a promising approach due to the great size difference between SF6 and N2 molecules. However, the common membranes are quite low permeable for N2/SF6 mixtures. In this research, the dry-wet phase inversion was customized with sectionalized air gap, i.e., dried air at upper section and humidified air at lower section, to manufacture Matrimid® asymmetric membranes in bulk with an ultrathin and defect-free selective layer. After optimization, the defect-free selective layer could be thinned to 80 nm. The pure gas test at 25 °C revealed that JN2 was increased to 2.58 GPU, and αN2/SF6 was approximately 41, very close to the value in the literature [J. Membr. Sci., 2014, 452, 311]. Without the restriction from the usual PDMS coating layer for defect-blocking, the elevated temperature operation was able to be employed to further enhance gas permeation. At 128 °C, the selectivity αN2/SF6 was maximized to 115, and the relevant JN2 is 9.0 GPU. At 200 °C, the temperature close to the allowable upper limit, JN2 was increased to 15.9 GPU, and the relevant αN2/SF6 was 97. Furthermore, the mixed-gas test demonstrated the favorable long-term stability of the customized membranes, even under the extreme running condition with pressure up to 2.0 MPaG and temperature up to 200 °C. With high efficiency and throughput under elevated temperature operation mode, the Matrimid® asymmetric membrane with ultrathin and defect-free selective layer is a promising approach for the separation and recycle of SF6 from the N2/SF6 mixtures.