Researchers at ChBE Illinois have received a grant from the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund (ACS PRF) to explore ways to efficiently separate carbon dioxide from gas mixtures using polymer-based membranes.
Assistant professor Alexa Kuenstler, who is leading the research, said that polymer-based membranes are critical to separation applications, including preventing emissions at point of use or remediating legacy emissions through new technologies such as direct air capture.
“A key challenge, however, is maintaining a high selectivity – meaning as much carbon dioxide is removed as possible – while simultaneously keeping permeability high, which controls the throughput of gas you can reasonably clean,” Kuenstler said.
The team plans to look at ways to chemically modify membranes to take advantage of solubility differences between gases as a mechanism for selectivity. As laid out in their proposal, they will use functionalized free chains within rubbery networks to create well-defined, semi-interpenetrating networks and test for links between diffusion processes and key solubility parameters.
“Our work will interrogate the roles of polymer structure and specific molecular interactions in mediating both selectivity and permeability such that we can synergistically optimize both,” Kuenstler said.