Effects of temperature and anion species on CO2 permeability and CO2/N2 separation coefficient through ionic liquid membranes

The permeability of carbon dioxide (CO2) through imidazolium-based ionic liquid membranes was measured by a sweep gas method. Six species of ionic liquids were studied in this work as follows: [emim][BF4], [bmim][BF4], [bmim][PF6], [bmim][Tf2N], [bmim][OTf], and [bmim][dca]. The ionic liquids were supported with a polyvinylidene fluoride porous membrane. The measurements were performed at T = (303.15 to 343.15) K. The partial pressure difference between feed and permeate sides was 0.121 MPa. The permeability of the CO2 increases with temperature for the all ionic liquid species. Base on solution diffusion theory, it can be explained that the diffusion coefficient of CO2 in an ionic liquid affects the temperature dependence more strongly than the solubility coefficient. The greatest permeability was obtained with the [bmim][Tf2N] membrane. The membrane of [bmim][PF6] presents the lowest permeability.The separation coefficient between CO2 and N2 through the ionic liquid membranes was also investigated at the volume fraction of CO2 at feed side 0.10. The separation coefficient decreases with the increase of temperature for the all ionic liquid species. The membrane of [emim][BF4] and [bmim][BF4] gives the highest separation coefficient at constant temperature. The lowest separation coefficient was obtained from [bmim][Tf2N] membrane which presents the highest permeability of CO2.