MOF-CONTAINING MIXED-MATRIX MEMBRANES FOR GAS TRANSPORT PROPERTIES

Abstract

Dense metal organic frameworks (MOFs) containing Mixed-Matrix Membranes (MMMs) were prepared by solvent evaporation with Semi fluorinated Polyamide (PA) as base polymer and MIL-53(Al) as filler. Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) are found to be promising porous crystalline materials for application in gas separation. The resulting MMMs showed good mechanical properties and good thermal stability. MMMs were prepared by MIL-53(Al) with Semi fluorinated Polyamide (PA) at 0%, 10%, 20%, and 30% weight percent of loading. However, the highest filler loadings (typically 40 wt%) deteriorated the properties of the membrane. An optimized priming protocol of the fillers before membrane preparation resulted in a homogeneous distribution of the MOFs, as confirmed with SEM. The gas permeability of four different gases CH₄, N₂, O₂ and CO₂ were measured for the pure and composite membranes using a constant-volume variable pressure method. The. The ideal selectivity of different gas pairs were calculated and compared with reported mixed matrix membranes. In the optimally loaded membrane (i.e., 30 wt% loaded membrane), the permeability of O₂ and CO₂ increased by 78 % and 67 %, respectively, as compared to the pure membrane.