Preparation and characterization of supported ionic liquid membrane using P84/EMIMBTI/non-solvents for gas separation

Abstract

In this final year project, wet inversion technique was used to prepare porous P84 membrane using NMP as a solvent. Supported ionic liquid membranes (SILMs) were subsequently set up by injecting ionic liquid (IL), EMIM BTI, onto the pores of the P84 membranes. In this study, the effects of membrane preparation form were analyzed through the use of 2 non solvents (DI water and Isopropyl Alcohol) and also the effect of applying different IL layers on the porous P84 membranes. A series of gas permeation tests were conducted on all SILMs using Carbon Dioxide and Nitrogen to ascertain the permeability and selectivity of the membranes. The surface of the SILMs and porous P84 membranes were finally analyzed using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM).

As a result, it was found that the addition of EMIM BTI ionic liquid onto the porous membrane decreases the value of the permeance. SILM prepared using DI water took the shortest time during the gas test whereas that of the IPA took a much a longer duration. By comparing the selectivity, it was determined that SILM prepared using IPA produced a greater value of selectivity for carbon dioxide over nitrogen. It was concluded that the membrane prepared by DI water was the most suitable SILM with a high permeance value and a reasonable selectivity value.