Interfacial Property Modulation of PIM-1 through Polydopamine-Derived Submicrospheres for Enhanced CO₂/N₂ Separation Performance

Polydopamine-modified additives have been thus far widely used in the mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) for gas separation. However, very few reports focus on the polydopamine alone and investigate its contribution to the gas separation performance. Herein, the polydopamine-derived submicrospheres (PDASS) were paired with polymers of intrinsic microporosity (PIM-1) to fabricate high-performance gas separation membranes, through which the effects of PDASS on gas permeability and CO2/N2 separation performance were systematically investigated. The addition of PDASS provides a 1.6-fold enhancement in CO2/N2 selectivity together with acceptable gas permeability as compared to the original polymeric membrane. Such enhanced separation behavior is supposed to stem from the densified membrane microstructure induced by the strong intermolecular interactions between PIM-1 and PDASS (i.e., charge transfer, π–π stacking, and hydrogen bonding). Importantly, the physical aging behavior, as judged by gas permeability, is retarded for PIM/PDASS membranes after 4 months of testing.