Gas transport properties of poly(arylene ether)s containing phthalimidine moiety in the main chain

The gas permeabilities of CH4, N2, O2 and CO2 through a series of poly(arylene ether)s (PAEs) containing cardo phthalimidine unit in the main chain were measured at three different temperatures and fixed gas pressure of 3.5 bar. The polymers exhibited high permeabilities and moderate selectivities. Two of the polymers named PAE-II and PAE-III showed high permeability for all the gases (PCO2 = 44.04, 40.06 Barrers, respectively). Moreover, high permeability coefficients for O2 (PO2 = 12.37–7.41) with good permselectivities towards O2 and N2 (8.14–6.92) made these series of poly(arylene ether)s highly interesting in comparison to the previously reported phthalimidine based polymers. The temperature dependence of permeability/diffusion coefficients enable to calculate the activation energies for the permeation/diffusion process of different gases through these membranes. An attempt has been taken to establish structure–property correlationship between the repeat unit structures and the gas transport properties of these polymers.

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► Semifluorinated poly(arylene ether) containing phthalimidine moiety.
► High gas permeability and selectivity.
► Structure–property correlationship.