Unexpectedly Strong Size-Sieving Ability in Carbonized Polybenzimidazole for Membrane H2/CO2 Separation
[1];
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- State Univ. of New York (SUNY), Buffalo, NY (United States)
- Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) Future Industries, Clayton, SV (Australia)
- National Inst. of Standards and Technology (NIST), Gaithersburg, MD (United States)
- Univ. of Waterloo, ON (Canada)
Polymers with high permeability and strong size-sieving ability are needed for H2/CO2 separation at temperatures ranging from 100 to 300 °C to enable an energy-efficient precombustion CO2 capture process. However, such polymers usually suffer from a permeability/selectivity tradeoff, that is, polymers with high permeability tend to exhibit a weak size-sieving ability and thus low selectivity. In this work, we demonstrate that carbonization of a suitable polymer precursor (i.e., polybenzimidazole or PBI) generates microcavities (leading to high H2 permeability) and ultramicroporous channels (leading to strong size-sieving ability and thus high H2/CO2 selectivity). Specifically, carbonization of PBI at 900 °C (CMS@900) doubles H2 permeability and increases H2/CO2 selectivity from 14 to 80 at 150 °C. When tested with simulated syngas-containing equimolar H2 and CO2 in the presence of water vapor for 120 h, CMS@900 exhibits stable H2 permeability of ≈36 barrer and H2/CO2 selectivity of ≈53 at 150 °C, above Robeson’s 2008 upper bound and demonstrating robustness against physical aging and CO2 plasticization.
- Research Organization:
- State Univ. of New York (SUNY), Buffalo, NY (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Fossil Energy (FE), Clean Coal and Carbon Management
- Grant/Contract Number:
- FE0031636; 1554236
- OSTI ID:
- 1601453
- Alternate ID(s):
- OSTI ID: 1864402
- Journal Information:
- ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, Vol. 11, Issue 50; ISSN 1944-8244
- Publisher:
- American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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