Role of Dimethyldichlorosilane-functionalized SiO2 nanoparticles on performance of ethylene vinyl acetate membrane in CO2/N2 separation

In this work the nanocomposite membrane made of ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA28) mixed with 8 wt.% hydrophobic functionalized fumed SiO2 nanoparticles (-SiCl(CH3)2O-SiO2) has been successfully prepared using solution casting/solvent evaporation method and CO2/N2 separation performance of the membranes were examined under different feed stream pressures. DSC analyses confirmed a remarkable enhancement in amorphous regions caused by increasing SiO2 content. SEM picture shows a uniform distribution of nanoparticles in polymer matrix. The gas permeability measurements were performed by utilizing a constant volume apparatus. With the addition of 8 wt.% SiO2 nanoparticles into membrane matrix the CO2 permeability increased from 21 to 40 Barrer and the CO2/N2 selectivity increased 22% in compression with the neat EVA28 membrane. In addition, the results show that the membrane performance increase upon feed pressure rise