Transforming covalent organic framework into thin-film composite membranes for hydrocarbon recovery

ABSTRACT

We, for the first time, employed chemically stable covalent organic framework (COF) (TpPa-1) as a transport-active phase within the polymer (styrene-butadiene rubber; SBR) matrix to make TpPa-1@SBR thin-film composite (TFC) membranes. Three composite membranes, viz., TpPa-1(30)@SBR, TpPa-1(50)@SBR, and TpPa-1(70)@SBR have been prepared with varying COF content. These membranes were characterized for gas permeance and results were compared with the pristine SBR-based TFC membrane. The fully organic nature of chemically stable COF offered good compatibility with the host polymer matrix (SBR) and resulted into flexible TFC membranes even at 70% of COF loading; compared to the other porous material (MOFs or Inorganic fillers), it is appreciable.

KEYWORDS:

• Covalent organic framework
• thin film composite
• hydrocarbon recovery
• styrene-butadiene rubber
• propylene–propane

Acknowledgement

The authors gratefully acknowledge Mr. Harshal Dilip Chaudhari for helping them during characterizations of membrane materials.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be access on the publisher’s website.

Additional information

Funding

The authors would like to thank the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Govt. of India for funding this work.