MICROSTRUCTURAL MANIPULATION OF POLYMERIC MEMBRANES FOR ENHANCED GAS SEPARATION PERFORMANCE

Abstract

Abstract Gas separation membranes are an emerging and fast-growing technology that finds increasing applications in chemical and petrochemical industries over the last three decades. The rapid development of membrane technology is due to its attractive advantages such as small footprint, high energy efficiency, cost competitiveness and environmental friendliness over conventional thermal-driven methods. Polymers are the most promising materials for gas separation membranes in industries owing to their good processability and high scalability. However, the moderate gas separation performance of the current polymeric membranes need breakthroughs to eventually outperform the traditional processes. In this PhD work, the effects of chemical structure and microstructural manipulation of polymeric membranes on gas transport properties have been fundamentally studied, and new approaches have been developed to produce novel polymeric membranes with enhanced separation performance.