Thin Composite Carbon Molecular Sieve Membranes from a Polymer of Intrinsic Microporosity Precursor
Type
ArticleAuthors
Ogieglo, WojciechFurchner, Andreas
Ma, Xiaohua
Hazazi, Khalid

Alhazmi, Abdulrahman

Pinnau, Ingo

KAUST Department
Advanced Membranes and Porous Materials Research CenterBiological and Environmental Sciences and Engineering (BESE) Division
Chemical Engineering Program
Physical Science and Engineering (PSE) Division
KAUST Grant Number
BAS/1/1323-01-01Date
2019-05Online Publication Date
2019-05Print Publication Date
2019-05-22Permanent link to this record
http://hdl.handle.net/10754/652850
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Ultra-thin composite carbon molecular sieve (CMS) membranes were fabricated on well-defined inorganic alumina substrates using a polymer of intrinsic microporosity (PIM) polyimide as precursor. Details of the pyrolysis-related structural development were elucidated using focused-beam, interference-enhanced spectroscopic ellipsometry (both in the UV-VIS and IR range) which allowed accurate determination of the film thickness, optical properties as well as following the chemical transformations. The pyrolysis-induced collapse of thin and bulk PIM-derived CMS membranes was compared with CMS made from a well-known non-PIM precursor 6FDA-DABA. Significant differences between the PIM and non-PIM precursors were discovered and explained by a much larger possible volume contraction in the PIM. In spite of the differences, surprisingly, the gas separation properties did not fundamentally differ. The high temperature collapse of the initially amorphous and isotropic precursor structure was accompanied by a significant molecular orientation within the formed turbostratic carbon network guided by the laterally constraining presence of the substrate. This manifested itself in the development of uniaxial optical anisotropy, which was shown to correlate with increases in gas separation selectivity for multiple technologically important gas pairs. Reduction of CMS skin thickness significantly below ~1 micron induced large losses in permeability coefficients with only small to moderate effects on selectivity. Remarkably, skin thickness reduction and physical aging seemed to superimpose onto the same trend, which explains and strengthens some of the earlier fundamental insights.Citation
Ogieglo W, Furchner A, Ma X, Hazazi K, Alhazmi AT, et al. (2019) Thin Composite Carbon Molecular Sieve Membranes from a Polymer of Intrinsic Microporosity Precursor. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acsami.9b04602.Sponsors
This publication is based on work supported by the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). IP Baseline Funding (KAUST) BAS/1/1323-01-01 (WO, XM, KH, ATA, IP). Financial support by the Ministerium für Innovation,Wissenschaft und Forschung des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen, the Regierende Bürgermeister von Berlin – Senatskanzlei Wissenschaft und Forschung, and the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, and the European Union through the EFRE program (ProFIT grant, contract no.: 10160255, 10160265, and 10160256) is gratefully acknowledged by AF. The authors gratefully acknowledge the possibility for an extensive use of the KAUST Solar Center infrastructure.Publisher
American Chemical Society (ACS)Additional Links
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsami.9b04602ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1021/acsami.9b04602