Elham Sameti - Chemical Engineering Department, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, Iran
Monireh Shekari
Hemmat Shirvani
Morteza Sadeghi

The effect of zinc oxide nanoparticles on the gas separation properties of polyurethane membrane has been investigated. The polyurethane (PU) was synthesized via two step polymerization method based on polytetramethylene glycol (PTMG), isophoronediisocyanate (IPDI) and 1, 4-butanediol (BDO) at the mole ratio of 1:3:2. The nanocomposite membranes were prepared via thermal phase inversion. The prepared polyurethane-ZnOnanocomposite membranes were characterized using FT-IR, SEM and X-Ray analyses. FT-IR and SEM results indicated good dispersion of ZnO particles in polymer matrix. Gas permeation properties of polyurethane-ZnO nanocomposite membrane with ZnO content up to 20 Wt% were studied for pure CO2, CH4, N2 and O2 gases. The obtained results indicated decreasing in permeability of all gases and increasing in CO2/N2 and CO2/CH4 gas selectivities upon increasing the ZnO content

membrane, gas separation, polyurethane, ZnO nanocomposite