Separation of Light Gases from Xenon over Porous Organic Cage Membranes

Herein, we demonstrate the successful synthesis and separation ability of CC3 porous organic cage membranes grown on tubular supports for light gases He, CO2, CH4, and Kr over xenon. CC3 membranes were synthesized using secondary seeded growth and displayed different separation performances depending on the crystal size, size distribution of the seeds, and membrane thickness. CC3 membranes as thin as ∼2.5 μm resulted in high single gas permeances of 2114, 1962, 1705, 773, and 162 GPU, for He, CH4, CO2, Kr, and Xe, respectively. The highest ideal selectivities for He/Xe, CH4/Xe, CO2/Xe, and Kr/Xe gas pairs were 13, 12, 10.5, and 4.8, respectively. Mechanistically, the membranes separated He, CO2, Kr, and CH4 from Xe mainly via gas diffusivity differences. Therefore, the separation was kinetically driven.