Abstract
Nanocomposite membrane (NCM) is deemed as a practical and green separation solution which has found application in various fields, due to its potential to delivery excellent separation performance economically. NCM is enabled by nanofiller, which comes in a wide range of geometries and chemical features. Despite numerous advantages offered by nanofiller incorporation, fabrication of NCM often met processing issues arising from incompatibility between inorganic nanofiller and polymeric membrane. Contemporary, functionalization of nanofiller which modify the surface properties of inorganic material using chemical agents is a viable approach and vigorously pursued to refine NCM processing and improve the odds of obtaining a defect-free high-performance membrane. This review highlights the recent progress on nanofiller functionalization employed in the fabrication of gas-separative NCMs. Apart from the different approaches used to obtain functionalized nanofiller (FN) with good dispersion in solvent and polymer matrix, this review discusses the implication of functionalization in altering the structure and chemical properties of nanofiller which favor interaction with specific gas species. These changes eventually led to the enhancement in the gas separation efficiency of NCMs. The most frequently used chemical agents are identified for each type of gas. Finally, the future perspective of gas-separative NCMs are highlighted.
Highlights
Synthetic membrane is a specially designed barrier used to regulate selective transport of molecules or chemical species to achieve separation toward specific species
Attributed to the unique structure of the Loeb–Sourirajan membrane, which consists of a thin selective layer that is supported by a porous substrate, their membrane exhibited substantially higher permeation rate compared to the contemporary membranes
A decade later, Cadotte [5,6] developed a membrane with a structure similar to that of the Loeb–Sourirajan membrane but, instead of a single-step phase inversion technique, interfacial polymerization (IP) technique devised by Wittbecker and Morgan [7] was used to obtain a composite membrane that is commonly known as thin film composite (TFC)
Summary
Synthetic membrane is a specially designed barrier used to regulate selective transport of molecules or chemical species to achieve separation toward specific species. CO2-separative NCM are the most comprehensively discussed material, where primary focuses have been placed on assessing the potentials of different nanomaterials [61,73], screening of nanofiller [74] and investigating the influences of nanofillers on membrane formation [75] Another important aspect in the development of NCM is the modification or functionalization of nanofillers, which has been reviewed in terms of the role of modification techniques and chemical agents to stabilize nanofiller dispersion and compatibilize nanofiller with a polymer matrix. These reviews are made in a generic term [76] or mainly focused on a specific type of nanofiller [60,77]. This review focuses on the shift in technological landscape of a gas-separative membrane brought by nanofiller functionalization in the past 5 years
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