CO2 Separation with Nano-thick Polymeric Membrane for Pre- combustion

Poly(amidoamine) (PAMAM) dendrimers exhibit quite high specificity toward CO2 and have been used for CO2 separation materials in membrane separation. PAMAM dendrimers are chemically immobilized by the reaction with epoxide-bearing poly(ethylene glycol)s (epoxy-PEGs). The reaction mixture is cast on a pre-treated substrate by spin-coating manner to form a nano-thick self-standing membrane. The membrane thickness is readily controlled by changing the spin-coating conditions and the reactant concentrations. The resulting nano-thick membranes show preferential CO2 permeation over H2 with very high CO2 permeance. Although the CO2 selectivity is not high, reduction of membrane thickness would be an approach to enhance CO2 permeability