Facilitated Transport Membranes (FTMs) Gas Transport Models and Reaction Mechanism

The remarkable CO2 capture capability of the facilitated transport membranes (FTMs) has captivated both academia and the commercial sectors, which have the potential to overcome the current trade-off constraint of the dense polymeric membranes that solely depends on the solution diffusion mechanism. Different synthetic carriers have been used in membranes by researchers for the rapid transport of selective gas molecules via the carrier mediation process, which demonstrate a similar mechanism of gas transport that occurs in natural biological membranes. However, it is difficult to understand the facilitated transport processes without a thorough theoretical investigation. Therefore, this chapter mainly focused on the comprehensive overview of the facilitated transport reaction mechanism, its chemistries, and gas transport models. In which facilitated transport reaction mechanisms are classified on the basis of different types and nature of carriers and their four main reaction chemistries are explored in detail. Furthermore, the gas transport model and its approximate analytical solutions of both mobile carriers (MC) and fixed-site carriers (FSC) for the facilitated transport of CO2 gas molecules are also thoroughly discussed.