Membranes of polycarbonate/poly(styrene-co-allyl alcohol) reinforced with nano-zeolite-based filler for gas separation

ABSTRACT

In this work, blend membrane of polycarbonate (PC) and poly(styrene-co-allyl alcohol) (PSAA) was fabricated via phase inversion technique. Two types of nanofiller were employed for the membrane reinforcement including nano-zeolite (NZ) and bifiller of nano-zeolite-carbon nanotube (NZ-CNT). The PC/PSAA/NZ-CNT membrane with 10 wt.% filler revealed the formation of gyroid type microstructure. The tensile strength of PC/PSAA/NZ 1–10 was 42.1–55.5 MPa, whereas PC/PSAA/NZ-CNT 1–10 showed higher value of 56.9–68.7 MPa. Moreover, the tensile strength of PC/PSAA/NZ-CNT 10 was 53% higher than the PC/PSAA matrix (32.2 MPa). Similarly, the Young's modulus of PC/PSAA/NZ-CNT 1–10 was increased from 133.2 to 144.2 MPa, and was found higher than the PC/PSAA/NZ 1–10 (101.1–122.1 MPa). The NZ-CNT filler was found more effective than NZ in enhancing permselectivity. The αCO₂/N₂ for PC/PSAA/NZ-CNT 10 was increased up to 38.2, which was higher than the PC/PSAA/NZ 10 (36.3) and neat blend (27.2). The permeability P_CO2 of PC/PSAA/NZ-CNT 10 membrane was found as 114.5 Barrer relative to PC/PSAA/NZ 10 (124.3 Barrer). However, the filler content did not significantly influence CO₂ and N₂ solubility in PC/PSAA/NZ and PC/PSAA/NZ-CNT membranes.

Keywords:

• Polycarbonate
• membrane
• nano-zeolite
• tensile strength
• permselectivity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.