Aging of Thin-Film Composite Membranes Based on Crosslinked PTMSP/PEI Loaded with Highly Porous Carbon Nanoparticles of Infrared Pyrolyzed Polyacrylonitrile

Abstract

The mitigation of the physical aging of thin-film composite (TFC) poly[1-trimethylsilyl-1-propyne] (PTMSP) membranes was studied via the simultaneous application of a polymer-selective layer crosslinking and mixed-matrix membrane approach. For the first time, a recently developed highly porous activated carbon material (infrared (IR) pyrolyzed poly[acrylonitrile] (PAN) or IR-PAN-a) was investigated as an additive to a PTMSP-selective layer for the reduction of aging in TFC membranes. The total electric energy spent on the IR irradiation treatment of IR-PAN-a particles was twice lower than conventional heating. The flat-sheet porous microfiltration membrane MFFK-1 was used as a support, and the crosslinked PTMSP/PEI loaded with a porous filler was applied as a selective layer (0.8–1.8 µm thick) to the TFC membranes. The initial IR-PAN-a sample was additionally milled to obtain a milled IR-PAN-aM sample with a monomodal particle size distribution of 500–800 nm. It was shown that IR-PAN-a, as a filler material with a high surface area and pore volume (2450 m2/g and 1.06 cm3/g, respectively) and a well-developed sponge-like structure, leads to the increase of the N2, O2, and CO2 permeance of PTMSP-based hybrid membrane material and the decrease of the aging of PTMSP. The simultaneous effect of crosslinking and the addition of a highly porous filler essentially improved the aging behavior of PTMSP-based TFC membranes. The monomodal and narrow particle size distribution of highly porous activated IR-pyrolyzed PAN is a key factor for the production of TFC membranes with reduced aging. The highest stability was achieved by the addition of a milled IR-PAN-aM sample (10 wt%). TFC membrane permeance was 6300 GPU (30% of initial permeance) after 11,000 h of aging at ambient laboratory conditions.

High Efficiency Membranes Based on PTMSP and Hyper-Crosslinked Polystyrene for Toxic Volatile Compounds Removal from Wastewater

“…The size distributions of HCPS particles obtained after grinding the initial commercial MN200 samples were determined by dynamic light scattering on a Malvern Zetasizer Nano analyzer (Malvern Panalytical Ltd., Malvern, Worcestershire, UK) [ 46 ]. The test samples were prepared by suspending the particles in chloroform (0.06 g of a sample in 10 mL of solvent).…”

Highly stable Pebax® Renew® thin-film nanocomposite membranes with metal organic framework ZIF-94 and ionic liquid [Bmim][BF4] for CO2 capture

“…PTMSP is a highly permeable glassy polymer that possesses an unrelaxed free fractional volume (FFV) and due to that undergoes physical aging because of the chain rearrangement, resulting in the reduction of the membrane permeance. 71 Therefore, one major concern when using this polymer as gutter layer is its aging. Chen et al 72 demonstrated that a thin coating of PTMSP can lose up to 80% of the CO 2 permeance within 14 days.…”

Hybrid Microporous Polymeric Materials with Outstanding Permeability and Increased Gas Transport Stability: PTMSP Aging Prevention by Sorption of the Polymerization Catalyst on HCPS

“…The size distributions of HCPS particles obtained after grinding the initial commercial MN200 samples were determined by dynamic light scattering on a Malvern Zetasizer Nano analyzer (Malvern Panalytical Ltd., Malvern, UK) [33]. The test samples were prepared by suspending the particles in chloroform (0.06 g of a sample in 10 mL of solvent).…”

“…One of the simplest and most effective ways to reduce membrane aging is to introduce a filler phase to produce so-called mixed-matrix membranes (MMM) [21][22][23]. Molecular sieves [24], structures based on metal-organic frameworks (MOF) [25][26][27][28], porous aromatic frameworks (PAF) [16,[29][30][31][32][33], hyper-crosslinked polystyrene (HCPS) [34][35][36][37][38], graphene, and graphene oxide (GO) [39] are used as such additives. MOF, such as zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIF-7, -8), can increase the gas permeability, selectivity, and mechanical properties of membranes [26,27].…”