Self-Supported Fibrous Porous Aromatic Membranes for Efficient CO₂/N₂ Separations

In this paper, we describe a new synthesis protocol for the preparation of self-supported hollow fiber membranes composed of porous aromatic framework PAF-56P and PSF. PAF-56P was facilely prepared by the cross-coupling reaction of triangle-shaped cyanuric chloride and linear p-terophenyl monomers. The prepared PAF-56P material possesses an extended conjugated network, the structure of which is confirmed by nuclear magnetic resonance and infrared characterizations, as well as a permanent porosity with a BET surface area of 553.4 m(2) g(-1) and a pore size of 1.2 nm. PAF-56P was subsequently integrated with PSF matrix into PAF-56P/PSF asymmetric hollow fiber membranes via the dry jet-wet quench method employing PAF-56P/PSF suspensions. Scanning electron microscopy studies show that PAF-56P particles are embedded in the PSF matrix to form continuous membranes. Fabricated PAF-56P/PSF membranes were further exploited for CO2 capture, which was exemplified by gas separations of CO2/N2 mixtures. The PAF-56P/PSF membranes show a high selectivity of CO2 over N2 with a separation factor of 38.9 due to the abundant nitrogen groups in the PAF-56P framework. A preferred permeance for CO2 in the binary CO2/N2 gas mixture is obtained in the range of 93-141 GPU due to the large CO2 adsorption capacity and a large pore size of PAF-56P. Additionally, PAF-56P/PSF membranes exhibit excellent thermal and mechanical stabilities, which were examined by thermal analysis and gas separation tests with the dependencies of temperatures and pressures. The merits of high selectivity for CO2, good stability, and easy scale up make PAF-56P/PSF hollow fiber membranes of great interest for the industrial separations of CO2 from the gas exhausts.