Wang Chen, Wu Ji, Wang Yinglin, Cheng Pengfei, Sun Shanfu, Wang Tianliang, Lei Zhaohui, Niu Xialu, Xu Luping
School of Aerospace Science and Technology, Xidian University, 266 Xifeng Road, Xi'an 710126, China.
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore, 4 Engineering Drive 4, Singapore 117585, Singapore.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2024 Mar 20;16(11):14152-14161. doi: 10.1021/acsami.3c19504. Epub 2024 Mar 12.
The incorporation of two-dimensional (2D) functional nanosheets in polymeric membranes is a promising material strategy to overcome their inherent performance trade-off behavior. Herein, we report a novel nanocomposite membrane design by incorporating MXene, a 2D sheet-like nanoarchitecture known for its advantageous lamellar morphology and surface functionalities, into a cross-linked polyether block amide (Pebax)/poly(ethylene glycol) methyl ether acrylate (PEGMEA) blend matrix, which delivered exceptional CO/N and CO/H separation performances that are critical to industrial CO capture applications. The finely dispersed TiCT nanosheets in the blend polymer matrix led to an expansion of the free volume within the resultant mixed matrix membrane (MMM), giving rise to a substantially enhanced CO permeability of up to 1264.6 barrer, which is 102% higher than that of the pristine polymer. Moreover, these MXene-incorporated MMMs exhibited preferential sorption for CO over light gases, which contributed to an exceptional CO/N and CO/H selectivity (64.3 and 19.2, respectively) even at a small loading of only 1 wt %, allowing the overall performance to not only surpass the latest upper bounds but also exceed many previously reported high-performance nanosheet-based nanocomposite membranes. Long-term performance tests have also demonstrated the good stability of these membranes. This composite membrane design strategy reveals the remarkable potential of combining a blend copolymer matrix with ultrathin MXene nanosheets to achieve superior gas separation performance for environmentally important gas separations.
将二维（2D）功能纳米片掺入聚合物膜中是一种很有前景的材料策略，可克服其固有的性能权衡行为。在此，我们报告了一种新型纳米复合膜设计，即将MXene（一种以其有利的层状形态和表面功能而闻名的二维片状纳米结构）掺入交联聚醚嵌段酰胺（Pebax）/聚（乙二醇）甲基醚丙烯酸酯（PEGMEA）共混基质中，该设计提供了对工业CO捕获应用至关重要的出色的CO/N和CO/H2分离性能。共混聚合物基质中精细分散的Ti3C2Tx纳米片导致所得混合基质膜（MMM）内的自由体积扩大，从而使CO渗透率大幅提高，高达1264.6巴每厘米，比原始聚合物高出102%。此外，这些掺入MXene的MMM对CO的吸附优先于轻质气体，这有助于即使在仅1 wt%的低负载量下也能实现出色的CO/N和CO/H2选择性（分别为64.3和19.2），使整体性能不仅超过最新的上限，而且超过许多先前报道的基于高性能纳米片的纳米复合膜。长期性能测试也证明了这些膜具有良好的稳定性。这种复合膜设计策略揭示了将共混共聚物基质与超薄MXene纳米片相结合以实现对环境重要气体分离的卓越气体分离性能的巨大潜力。
