Methanol Vapor Retards Aging of PIM-1 Thin Film Composite Membranes in Storage

Ming Yu, Andrew B. Foster, Colin A. Scholes, Sandra E. Kentish , Peter M. Budd

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

: Physical aging of glassy polymers leads to a decrease in permeability over time when they are used in membranes. This hinders the industrial application of high free volume polymers, such as the archetypal polymer of intrinsic microporosity PIM-1, for membrane gas separation. In thin film composite (TFC) membranes, aging is much more rapid than in thicker self-standing membranes, as rearrangement within the thin active layer is relatively fast. Liquid alcohol treatment, which swells the membrane, is often used in the laboratory to rejuvenate aged self-standing membranes, but this is not easily applied on an industrial scale and is not suitable to refresh TFC membranes because of the risk of membrane delamination. In this work, it is demonstrated that a simple method of storage in an atmosphere of methanol vapor effectively retards physical aging of PIM-1 TFC membranes. The same method can also be utilized to refresh aged PIM-1 TFC membranes, and one-week methanol vapor storage is sufficient to recover most of the original CO2 permeance.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)113-117
Number of pages5
JournalACS Macro Letters
Volume12
Issue number1
Early online date6 Jan 2023
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 17 Jan 2023

Keywords

  • Polymer of intrinsic microporosity
  • PIM-1
  • Thin film composite
  • Aging
  • Membrane refreshment

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Methanol Vapor Retards Aging of PIM-1 Thin Film Composite Membranes in Storage'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this