Hafiz Abdul Mannan

Polyethersulfone (PES) Membranes for CO2/CH4 Separation: Effect of Polymer Blending

Effect of polymer blending on physico-chemical and gas permeation properties of polyethersulfone (PES) membrane was studied. PES was chosen as base polymer and polysulfone (PSF) and polyvinyl acetate (PVAc) were added as glassy and rubbery polymer additives respectively. The morphology, thermal stability and miscibility of PES membranes were characterized by FESEM, TGA and DSC respectively to observe the effect of polymer blending. The prepared membranes were tested for permeation of CO2 and CH4 at a feed pressure of 2 to 10 bar. PES-PSF membrane exhibits the separation properties identical to PES membrane. PES-PVAc blend membrane was found to be immiscible and high permeability was achieved while the selectivity was lost.

Preparation and Characterization of Newly Developed Polysulfone/Polyethersulfone Blend Membrane for CO2 Separation

Polymeric membranes suffer from so called upper bound tradeoff between permeability and selectivity as described by Robeson. Polymer blending is a valuable technique to tune the properties of polymeric membranes by physical mixing of different polymers in a single mixture. In this study, preparation and characterization of newly developed polysulfone/polyethersulfone (PSF/PES) blend flat sheet dense membranes is described for CO2/CH4 separation. Blend membranes with different blending ratios were prepared and the developed membranes were characterized by FESEM, FTIR and TGA to see the effect of blend ratio on morphology, bonding and thermal stability respectively. Permeability of CO2 and CH4 gases in pressure range of 2-10 bar is recorded to find out the ideal selectivity of prepared membranes. The results are discussed and compared with individual polymer membranes.

Polyethersulfone/Polyvinyl Acetate Blend Membrane for CO2/CH4 Gas Separation

The synthesis of polyethersulfone (PES)/polyvinyl acetate (PVAc) blend membrane was successfully developed by dry phase inversion method. The membrane morphology characterized using Field Emission Electron Microscope (FESEM) showed both polymers were homogeneously mixed and a dense structure was formed. A shift in characteristic peak for most chemical groups was observed in blend membrane as analyzed by Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) analysis which suggests the presence of molecular interaction between the blend polymers. The permeability of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) gases was recorded at a constant pressure of 10 bars and room temperature. The permeability across polymer blend membrane showed better performance as compared with native polymer membrane.

Effect of TiO2 Incorporation on Separation Performance of Pure PES and PES/PVAc Blend Membranes

In this research work, polyethersulfone (PES) and polyethersulfone/polyvinyl acetate (PES/PVAc) blend were incorporated with 10 wt.% of TiO2 nanoparticles to form mixed matrix membranes (MMM). FESEM and TGA were utilized respectively to scrutinize the morphology and thermal stability of the developed membranes. Permeation tests of ideal CO2 and CH4 gases were also conducted to assess the separation performance of resultant membranes. The PES/PVAc/TiO2 polymer blend MMM was found to be the most thermally resistant and has the highest CO2 permeability and CO2/CH4 selectivity as compared to the other membranes.

Development and characterization of polyethersulfone/TiO2 mixed matrix membranes for CO2/CH4 separation

In this study, mixed matrix membranes comprised of polyethersulfone as the bulk polymer phase and titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles as the inorganic discontinuous phase were prepared for CO2/CH4 separation. Membranes were synthesized at filler loading of 0, 5, 10 and 15 wt % via dry phase inversion method. Morphology, chemical bonding and thermal characteristics of membranes were scrutinized utilizing different techniques, namely: Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM), Fourier Transform InfraRed (FTIR) spectra and Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) respectively. Membranes gas separation performance was evaluated for CO2 and CH4 gases at 4 bar feed pressure. The highest separation performance was achieved by mixed matrix membrane (MMM) at 5 % loading of TiO2.In this study, mixed matrix membranes comprised of polyethersulfone as the bulk polymer phase and titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles as the inorganic discontinuous phase were prepared for CO2/CH4 separation. Membranes were synthesized at filler loading of 0, 5, 10 and 15 wt % via dry phase inversion method. Morphology, chemical bonding and thermal characteristics of membranes were scrutinized utilizing different techniques, namely: Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM), Fourier Transform InfraRed (FTIR) spectra and Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) respectively. Membranes gas separation performance was evaluated for CO2 and CH4 gases at 4 bar feed pressure. The highest separation performance was achieved by mixed matrix membrane (MMM) at 5 % loading of TiO2.

Morphological analysis of Polyethersulfone/polyvinyl Acetate blend membrane synthesized at various polymer concentrations

This paper reports the effect of varying polymer concentration i.e. solvent/polymer ratio on the morphology and gas transport behaviour of polyethersulfone/polyvinyl acetate blend membrane. The solvent used was dimethylformamide, while the manipulated variable was polymer concentration. The concentrations were varied from 75-90 weight % solvent. A homogeneous surface with dense cross-section structure membranes were successfully developed as deduced from FESEM images. The permeability of CO2 and CH4 gases increased with increasing polymer concentration and an improved CO2/CH4 selectivity was observed. These observation made from the characterization justified the applicability of the blend to be synthesized as membrane for gas separation.