Synthesis of nanostructured mixed matrix membranes for facilitated gas separation

The separation of gas mixture is a major operation in the petrol-chemical industry. The separation of oxygen/nitrogen is one of the main applications. The most common applied commercial gas separation processes are cryogenic distillation, adsorption and classical membrane permeation. Depending on the specific requirements for the process, i.e., process scale and product purity, one or more of the available gas separation techniques will be economically preferable. Under economic considerations membrane systems have been proven to be loss energy intensive and thus more cost effective to operate than the traditional techniques mentioned. Classical polymeric membrane materials used so far possessing high selectivities for specific gas pairs show generally low permeabilities, which is referred to as an “upper bound” relationship. Facilitated transport of a specific gas molecule can therefore be suggested as one of the promising methods to improve single bulk material (polymer) properties. The main goal of this project was to synthesise a new class of gas separation membranes based on carrier facilitated transport for oxygen/nitrogen separation.