Abstract
Asymmetric polyphenylsulfone (PPSU) membranes were fabricated by a non-solvent induced phase inversion method. Glycerin and silica nanoparticles were added into the polymer solution to investigate their effects on the material properties and gas separation performance of prepared membranes. The morphology and structure of PPSU membranes were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), the surface roughness of the selective layer was analyzed by atomic force microscopy (AFM), and the surface free energy was calculated based on the contact angle measurements by using various solvents. The gas separation performance of PPSU membranes was estimated by measuring the permeability of CO2 and CH4. The addition of glycerin as a nonsolvent into the polymer solution changed the cross-section structure from finger-like structure into sponge-like structure due to the delayed liquid-liquid demixing process, which was confirmed by SEM analysis. The incorporation of silica nanoparticles into PPSU membranes slightly increased the hydrophilicity, which was confirmed by water contact angle results. PPSU membrane fabricated from the polymer solution containing 10 wt.% glycerin showed the best CO2/CH4 selectivity of 3.86 and the CO2 permeability of 1044.01 Barrer. Mixed matrix PPSU membrane containing 0.1 wt.% silica nanoparticles showed the CO2/CH4 selectivity of 3.16 and the CO2 permeability of 1202.77 Barrer.
Highlights
Biogas has gained significant interest due to its ability to mitigate carbon dioxide emissions and pollution issues
The influence of the nonsolvent and silica nanoparticles on CO2 /CH4 selectivity can be explained in the following way: the addition of nonsolvent into the polymer solution changed the morphology of PPSU membrane from finger-like to sponge-like with smaller micropores (Table 2, Figures 3–7), which resulted in the increase of CO2 /CH4 selectivity
The PPSU based membranes including pure PPSU membranes and mixed matrix membranes with incorporated silica nanoparticles were fabricated by solution casting and nonsolvent induced phase inversion methods
Summary
Biogas has gained significant interest due to its ability to mitigate carbon dioxide emissions and pollution issues. The structure of polymeric membranes has important effects on the final separation of a mixture improve the permeation without reducing the selectivity, the thin-film composite membrane is of two main components offlux biogas:. The thin-film nanocomposite membranes that consist of polyamide selective layer with incorporated multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNT) formed on polysulfone substrate was fabricated by interfacial polymerization method to improve the CO2 removal performance [41]. For the removal of CO2 from biogas by polymeric membranes with dense selective layer, solution-diffusion and facilitated transport mechanisms are the most favorable [57,58]. To prepare PPSU based flat sheet membranes with high CO2 permeability and satisfying CO2 /CH4 selectivity, a novel membrane fabrication method consisting of the addition of nanoparticles and/or nonsolvent into the polymer solution and the nonsolvent induced phase inversion process is developed in the present study. The capabilities of PPSU based membranes for the CO2 /CH4 separation were evaluated by experimentally studying the permeability and selectivity of CO2 and CH4 gases through various PPSU based membranes
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