Unexpectedly Strong Size-Sieving Ability in Carbonized Polybenzimidazole for Membrane H2/CO2 Separation
Abstract
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.
- Authors:
-
- 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)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- State Univ. of New York (SUNY), Buffalo, NY (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Fossil Energy (FE), Clean Coal and Carbon Management
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1601453
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1864402
- Grant/Contract Number:
- FE0031636; 1554236
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 11; Journal Issue: 50; Journal ID: ISSN 1944-8244
- Publisher:
- American Chemical Society (ACS)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; carbon capture; hydrogen production; carbon molecular sieve membranes; polybenzimidazole; H2/CO2 separation
Citation Formats
Omidvar, Maryam, Nguyen, Hien, Huang, Liang, Doherty, Cara M., Hill, Anita J., Stafford, Christopher M., Feng, Xianshe, Swihart, Mark T., and Lin, Haiqing. Unexpectedly Strong Size-Sieving Ability in Carbonized Polybenzimidazole for Membrane H2/CO2 Separation. United States: N. p., 2019.
Web. doi:10.1021/acsami.9b16966.
Omidvar, Maryam, Nguyen, Hien, Huang, Liang, Doherty, Cara M., Hill, Anita J., Stafford, Christopher M., Feng, Xianshe, Swihart, Mark T., & Lin, Haiqing. Unexpectedly Strong Size-Sieving Ability in Carbonized Polybenzimidazole for Membrane H2/CO2 Separation. United States. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.9b16966
Omidvar, Maryam, Nguyen, Hien, Huang, Liang, Doherty, Cara M., Hill, Anita J., Stafford, Christopher M., Feng, Xianshe, Swihart, Mark T., and Lin, Haiqing. Thu .
"Unexpectedly Strong Size-Sieving Ability in Carbonized Polybenzimidazole for Membrane H2/CO2 Separation". United States. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.9b16966. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1601453.
@article{osti_1601453,
title = {Unexpectedly Strong Size-Sieving Ability in Carbonized Polybenzimidazole for Membrane H2/CO2 Separation},
author = {Omidvar, Maryam and Nguyen, Hien and Huang, Liang and Doherty, Cara M. and Hill, Anita J. and Stafford, Christopher M. and Feng, Xianshe and Swihart, Mark T. and Lin, Haiqing},
abstractNote = {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.},
doi = {10.1021/acsami.9b16966},
journal = {ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces},
number = 50,
volume = 11,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Nov 21 00:00:00 EST 2019},
month = {Thu Nov 21 00:00:00 EST 2019}
}
Web of Science