Plasticization Enhanced Hydrogen Purification Using Polymeric Membranes
Polymer membranes are attractive for molecular scale separations such as hydrogen purification because of inherently low energy requirements. However, membrane materials with outstanding hydrogen separation performance in feed streams containing high pressure carbon dioxide and impurities such as hydrogen sulfide and water are not available. We report highly permeable, reverse selective membrane materials for hydrogen purification, as exemplified by molecularly engineered, highly branched, cross linked poly(ethylene oxide) In contrast to the performance of conventional materials, we demonstrate that plasticization can be harnessed to improve separation performance.
Science