PAMAM dendrimer composite membrane for CO2 separation: addition of hyaluronic acid in gutter layer and application of novel hydroxyl PAMAM dendrimer

To improve the CO2 separation performance of a poly(amidoamine) (PAMAM) dendrimer composite membrane, the addition of hyaluronic acid (HA) in a chitosan (CTS) gutter layer and the application of a novel hydroxyl PAMAM dendrimer for CO2 selective material are proposed. The addition of HA in the coating solution for CTS gutter layer formation increased the swelling degree of the corresponding CTS–HA film and led to an increased CO2 permeance of the resulting composite membrane, and a decrease in the CO2/N2 separation factor. A PAMAM dendrimer composite membrane with CTS–HA(20) gutter layer, which was prepared with a coating solution of 20 wt.% HA solid content, showed a high permeance of 10.0 × 10−10 m3 (STP) m−2 s−1 Pa−1 while maintaining a high CO2 separation factor of 130. The HA addition increased the PAMAM dendrimer content in the gutter layer. A composite membrane prepared with a novel hydroxyl PAMAM dendrimer in the CTS–HA(20) gutter layer exhibited an excellent CO2/N2 selectivity of 1100 and CO2 permeance of 8.8 × 10−10 m3 (STP) m−2 s−1 Pa−1.