Flexible Membranes of Fused Block Copolymer Vesicles for CO2 Separation

In CO 2 separation and purification, the membrane separation technology has the most potential. Homogeneous membranes such as polyimide membranes have advantages of easy preparation and good mechanical properties but exhibit low CO 2 permeability. Heterogeneous membranes such as mixed matrix membranes show high CO 2 permeability and CO 2 /CH 4 selectivity but have poor mechanical strength and complicated membrane production. Here, we prepare a novel separation membrane by fused chelate block copolymer vesicles in the presence of Co salt. This resultant membrane combines the advantages of homogeneous membranes with easy preparation and good mechanical property and heterogeneous membranes with high CO 2 permeability, which shows good prospects for industrial application. For example, the resultant membrane exhibits remarkable mechanical properties, such as an elongation at break of 210% and a tensile strength of 8 MPa, and exhibits a CO 2 permeability of 730.5 Barrer and a CO 2 /CH 4 selectivity of 13.5.