ZIF-301 MOF/6FDA-DAM polyimide mixed-matrix membranes for CO2/CH4 separation

Compared with traditional separation methods, membrane-based technology shows advantages in energy efficiency for natural gas purification. To overcome the performance trade-off of conventional polymeric membranes, in this study, ZIF-301 MOF was employed as novel filler to fabricate 6FDA-DAM polyimide mixed-matrix membranes (MMMs) for CO2/CH4 separation. A solvent exchange approach was proposed to remove the high-boiling-point solvent used for fabricating the MMMs. The microstructures and physico-chemical properties of the ZIF-301 fillers and ZIF-301/6FDA-DAM MMMs were characterized by SEM, EDX, XRD, IR, TGA, DSC and high-pressure sorption isotherms. The CO2/CH4 transport properties through the MMMs were evaluated by permeation measurement at various feed pressures and analyzed by solution-diffusion model. The results showed that the incorporation of ZIF-301 into 6FDA-DAM enhanced both the CO2 permeability and CO2/CH4 selectivity, attributing to the preferential CO2 sorption and aperture molecular sieving effect of the ZIF-301 filler. The MMM with optimal ZIF-301 loading of 20 wt% exhibited CO2 permeability of 891 barrer and CO2/CH4 of 29.3 that surpassed the 2008 Robeson upper-bound, suggesting that ZIF-301 based membrane could be a potential candidate for natural gas purification.