This study proposes the fabrication of metal–organic
framework
(MOF)-based supported ionic liquid membranes (SILMs) to separate CO2 selectively. This report consists of two main parts; the
first part focuses on optimizing polyethersulfone/poly(dimethylsiloxane)/zeolitic
imidazolate framework-L (PES/PDMS/ZIF-L) composite membrane fabrication
to improve CO2 permeance and selectivity simultaneously.
The optimization process was carried out by the Box–Behnken
design (BBD). At the optimized conditions (4.70 wt % PDMS, 5 mm/s
withdrawal speed, 73.5 s dipping time, and 1.5:1 ZIF-L:PDMS ratio),
the composite membrane recorded 6.61 GPU of CO2 permeance.
Furthermore, the CO2/N2 and CO2/CH4 selectivities were 20.20 and 6.19, respectively. The second
part of this report focuses on developing the supported ionic liquid
membrane (SILM) by altering the optimized PES/PDMS/ZIF-L membrane.
The SILM fabricated in this study undergoes a distinct fabrication
method where the ionic liquid ([BMIM][BF4]) was impregnated
in the ZIF-L instead of the porous support. Such a fabrication method
was attempted due to the flexible structure of ZIF-L as a response
to heat and able to immobilize the IL. As a result, SILM performed
effectively as the CO2 permeance increased to 9.96 GPU
at CO2/N2 and CO2/CH4 selectivities
of 44.97 and 30.77, respectively. It is hypothesized that the enhancement
of performance was achieved due to the synergy between the ZIF-L and
IL, as revealed in this article.