IMPROVED GAS PERMEATION WITH NEW POLYDIMETHYL- SILOXANE BLOCK COPOLYMER MEMBRANES

New block copolymers have received major attentions in the area of gas separation and purification and removal of CO2 in gas sweetening industry. An intensive research in this area has been focused on the improved gas permeability and permselectivity of the block copolymers designed for specific gas separation process. In this work, we have improved the permselectivity of polymeric membranes toward CO2 and N2 gases and designed new block copolymers. Our design is based on the adjustment of the hard and soft segments of block copolymers composed of poly(ethyl methacrylate) (PEMA) and poly(methyl acrylate)(PMA) with poly (dimethyl siloxane) (PDMS), i.e. PEMA-b-PDMS-b-PEMA and PMA-b-PDMS-b-PMA triblock copolymers. The chemical structure and morphology structure of the synthesized block copolymers were also studied using 1H-NMR analyses and X-ray analyses, respectively.

Keywords:

Poly (dimethyl siloxane) , Block copolymer , Membrane , Gas separation , Atom transfer radical polymerization