Pure- and Mixed-Gas Permeation Properties of Highly Selective and Plasticization Resistant Hydroxyl-Diamine-Based 6FDA Polyimides for CO2/CH4 Separation

Nasser Y. Alaslai, Bader Ghanem, Fahd Alghunaimi, Eric Litwiller, Ingo Pinnau

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

113 Scopus citations

Abstract

The effect of hydroxyl functionalization on the m-phenylene diamine moiety of 6FDA dianhydride-based polyimides was investigated for gas separation applications. Pure-gas permeability coefficients of He, H2, N2, O2, CH4, and CO2 were measured at 35 °C and 2 atm. The introduction of hydroxyl groups in the diamine moiety of 6FDA-diaminophenol (DAP) and 6FDA-diamino resorcinol (DAR) polyimides tightened the overall polymer structure due to increased charge transfer complex formation compared to unfunctionalized 6FDA-m-phenylene diamine (mPDA). The BET surface areas based on nitrogen adsorption of 6FDA-DAP (54 m2g−1) and of 6FDA-DAR (45 m2g−1) were ~18% and 32% lower than that of 6FDA-mPDA (66 m2g−1). 6FDA-mPDA had a pure-gas CO2 permeability of 14 Barrer and CO2/CH4 selectivity of 70. The hydroxyl-functionalized polyimides 6FDA-DAP and 6FDA-DAR exhibited very high pure-gas CO2/CH4 selectivities of 92 and 94 with moderate CO2 permeability of 11 and 8 Barrer, respectively. It was demonstrated that hydroxyl-containing polyimide membranes maintained very high CO2/CH4 selectivity (~ 75 at CO2 partial pressure of 10 atm) due to CO2 plasticization resistance when tested under high-pressure mixed-gas conditions. Functionalization with hydroxyl groups may thus be a promising strategy towards attaining highly selective polyimides for economical membrane-based natural gas sweetening.
Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)100-107
Number of pages8
JournalJournal of Membrane Science
Volume505
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 5 2016

Bibliographical note

KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Biochemistry
  • Filtration and Separation
  • General Materials Science
  • Physical and Theoretical Chemistry

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