The effect of protic ionic liquids incorporation on CO2 separation performance of Pebax-based membranes

The separation of carbon dioxide (CO₂) is of great importance for environment protection and gas resource purification. The ionic liquids (ILs)-based gas separation membrane provides a new chance for efficient CO₂ separation, while high permeability and selectivity of membranes is a great challenge. In this study, the influence of two protic ILs with different anion (TMGH]Im] and TMGH]PhO]) on the CO₂ separation performance of the prepared ILs/Pebax blended membranes were systematically investigated at different temperature. The results showed the CO₂ permeability exhibits the rising trend for ILs/Pebax blended membranes with the increment of IL content. Especially, the TMGH]Im] with low viscosity and high CO₂ absorption capacity leads to the blended membranes showing better CO₂ permeability and ideal CO₂ selectivity than that of membranes with TMGH]PhO] at high IL content. Besides, with operating temperature increasing, the gas permeability of 20% (mass) TMGH]Im]/Pebax blended membrane increases due to the decreasing viscosity of IL and the rising chain mobility of polymer. Inversely, the gas selectivity shows decreasing trend because CO₂ absorption capacity obviously decreased at higher temperature.