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AssigneeUop LLC
InventorsChunqing Liu, Raisa Minkov, Man-Wing Tang, Lubo Zhou, Jeffery C. Bricker
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The present invention discloses a novel method to improve the selectivities of polybenzoxazole (PBO) membranes prepared from aromatic polyimide membranes for gas, vapor, and liquid separations. The PBO membranes that were prepared by thermal treating aromatic polyimide membranes containing between 0.05 and 20 wt-% of a poly(styrene sulfonic acid) polymer. These polymers showed up to 95% improvement in selectivity for CO2/CH4 and H2/CH4 separations compared to PBO membranes prepared from corresponding aromatic polyimide membranes without a poly(styrene sulfonic acid) polymer.
A method for production of high performance polybenzoxazole membranes with improved selectivity for gas, vapor, and liquid separations comprising first fabricating an aromatic polyimide membrane from a mixture of a polymer containing aromatic sulfonic acid groups and an aromatic polyimide polymer comprising pendent hydroxyl groups ortho to an imide nitrogen in the aromatic polyimide polymer backbone, and then converting the aromatic polyimide membrane to a polybenzoxazole membrane by application of heat under an inert atmosphere.
A process for separating at least one gas or liquid from a mixture of gases or liquids using a polybenzoxazole polymer membranes with improved selectivity prepared from an aromatic polyimide membrane containing poly(styrene sulfonic acid) polymer, the process comprising:
A membrane comprising a mixture of an aromatic polyimide polymer and a poly(styrene sulfonic acid) polymer.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.