therefore the present invention is not to be interpreted as being limited to the following examples carbonate solutions are known to facilitate the transport of carbon dioxide the net chemical reaction being co 2 co 3 sup u2550 h 2 o 2hco 3 an anion exchange membrane with co 3 sup u2550 hco 3 counter ions has also been shown to exhibit facilitated transport a quaternized polyxylylene oxide was prepared and membranes prepared by solvent casting carbonate counter ions were then substituted onto the membrane which had originally been in the br form as a result of the ion exchange polymer synthesis reaction carbonate substitution was easily accomplished by soaking the membrane in a solution of k 2 co 3 the membrane was thoroughly rinsed with distilled water to remove any carbonate not functioning as a counter ion co 2 permeation properties were then measured by passing a humidified co 2 oxygen mixture over one surface of the membrane and countercurrently flowing a helium sweep gas stream over the other surface the results of this test are shown below and the permeabilities compared with those for a water film and the base polyxylylene oxide polymer ______________________________________permeability of quaternized polyxylyleneoxide with co sub 3 sup hco sub 3 sup counter ionco sub 2 partial pressure in feed 3 8 cmhgt 25 u00b0 c str1 co sub 2 o sub 2______________________________________water 40 2polyxylylene 8 4 1 7oxidepolymerquaternized 105 1 6polyxylyleneoxidequaternized 117 8 6polyxylyleneoxide______________________________________ it can be clearly seen that substantially improved co 2 permeability has been achieved with the anion exchange membrane and that very high selectivity for co 2 over the non reacting o 2 has been accomplished thus indicating that facilitated co 2 transport indeed occurs to illustrate the separation of carbon.