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US 12,138,599 B2Granted
Porous polybenzimidazole membrane supports for composite membranes
AssigneeBattelle Memorial Institute
InventorsDavid Philip Hopkinson, Lingxiang Zhu
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Abstract
The present invention provides highly permeable and porous polybenzimidazole membranes, methods of making them, and their application as a high-performance membrane support for gas separation composite membranes. The polybenzimidazole membranes are bonded to a fabric substrate.
Claims20
A porous PBI membrane, comprising:
- a fabric layer;
- a PBI layer bonded to the fabric layer;
- and further characterizable by:
- wherein the PBI layer comprises a pore size of less than 50 nm, and a surface porosity of at least 8%;
- or
- wherein the PBI layer comprises finger-like pores observed from the cross-section under microscope, and wherein at least 50 vol % of the pores in the PBI layer have an aspect ratio of at least 2, wherein aspect ratio is defined as maximum length divided by average diameter of each pore, and where length is perpendicular to the surface of the fabric layer.
3 more elements
A porous PBI membrane, comprising:
- a fabric layer;
- a PBI layer bonded to the fabric layer;
- and further characterizable by:
- wherein the PBI layer comprises finger-like pores observed from a cross-section under microscope, and wherein at least 50 vol % of the pores in the PBI layer have an aspect ratio of at least 2;
- and,
- wherein aspect ratio is defined as maximum length divided by average diameter of each pore, and where length is perpendicular to the surface of the fabric layer, wherein the PBI layer has a solvent resistance such that, if soaked in chloroform, tetrahydrofuran, or acetone for 1 hour, the PBI layer, after soaking and drying, comprises a gas permeance at least 90% of its permeance measured before the solvent soaking.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.