Effects of thermally labile saccharide units on the gas separation performance of highly permeable polyimide membranes

▸ Flexible membranes fabricated from polyimide grafted with saccharide. ▸ The thermally labile saccharide creates microvoids upon annealing. ▸ The effects of saccharide chemistry on membrane properties are studied. ▸ A 4 to 8 fold increase in gas permeability with enhanced resistance to CO2 plasticization. ▸ Excellent C3H6/C3H8 and CO2/C2H6 performance with CO2 permeability up to 1389 barrer.