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

• Published in: Membranes (Basel) 2020-12, Vol.10 (12), p.419
• Main Authors: Bakhtin, Danila, Bazhenov, Stepan, Polevaya, Victoria, Grushevenko, Evgenia, Makaev, Sergey, Karpacheva, Galina, Volkov, Vladimir, Volkov, Alexey
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acrylonitrile; Activated carbon; Additives; Aging; Carbon; Carbon dioxide; crosslinked PTMSP; Crosslinking; Fillers; hybrid materials; I.R. radiation; infrared pyrolyzed polyacrylonitrile; Irradiation; Membranes; Microfiltration; Nanoparticles; Particle size; Particle size distribution; Permeability; Polyacrylonitrile; Polymers; porous carbon filler; Porous materials; Reluctance; Size distribution; Thin films; thin-film composite membranes
• ISSN: 2077-0375; 2077-0375
• DOI: 10.3390/membranes10120419

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 m /g and 1.06 cm /g, respectively) and a well-developed sponge-like structure, leads to the increase of the N , O , and CO 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.