Synthesis and characterization of polybenzimidazole membranes for gas separation with improved gas permeability: A grafting and blending approach

Polybenzimidazoles (PBIs) are promising materials for gas separation membranes at elevated temperatures due to their excellent chemical and thermal stability and high Tgs. Their properties make them useful for gas separation of H2 and CO2 from pre-combustion syngas, which requires operating temperatures of 150–300 °C. PBIs have inherently low gas permeabilities, and thus the focus of this work was to improve permeability without sacrificing selectivity or mechanical properties of the membranes. Low molecular weight poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) or poly(propylene carbonate) (PPC) were incorporated as thermally labile grafts and blends. It was believed that removing these low molecular weight sacrificial components via a controlled heat treatment would allow formation of “nanovoids” in the membrane that could increase the permeabilities. Gas transport for blends of PBI with 7 and 11 wt% of PPC and a PBI-g-PEO copolymer with 13 wt% of PEO were measured before and after heat treatment. Unlike other methods of increasing membrane permeability which results in a selectivity trade-off, heat treatment of these PBI blends and graft copolymers resulted in increases in both H2 permeability and H2/CO2 selectivity. The PBI-PPC blend containing 7 wt% of PPC, after heating at 350 °C, maintained most of the toughness of the PBI homopolymer.