Mixed-Matrix Membranes with Covalent Triazine Framework Fillers in Polymers of Intrinsic Microporosity for CO 2 Separations

Polymers of intrinsic microporosity (PIMs) exhibit high permeability but moderate selectivity, which limits their industrial application in membrane gas separations. Here, a novel CO 2 -philic perfluorinated covalent triazine framework (FCTF-1) filler in a PIM-1 matrix is utilized to enhance gas selectivity and permeability simultaneously. The predominately organic nature of FCTF-1 improves interfacial compatibility with the polymer matrix. The presence of polar functionality, i.e., triazine rings and fluorine atoms, leads to the preferential sorption of CO 2 over CH 4, thus increasing solubility selectivity, while the microporosity of FCTF-1 increases diffusion selectivity. [email protected] mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) with 2 wt % filler loading exhibited a CO 2 permeability of 7300 barrer and a CO 2 /CH 4 selectivity of 16.6. In addition, we report some initial mixed gas propene/propane separation data to determine the applicability of [email protected] MMMs to other small molecule separations. This work provides a potential approach to fabricating PIM-1-based MMMs with covalent triazine framework (CTF)-type fillers for gas separation.