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US 2025/0033002 A1Published application
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 method of making a flat sheet of a membrane suitable for membrane support, comprising:
- providing a fabric sheet;
- applying a coating solution to the fabric sheet;
- wherein the solution comprises a polybenzimidazole in an aprotic polar solvent to form a PBI-coated fabric;
- passing the PBI-coated fabric into an aqueous coagulation bath to form a porous PBI coated composite wherein the coagulation bath is at a temperature of at least 45° C.;
- and
- rinsing and drying the porous PBI composite.
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18-34. (canceled)
A method of separating a component of a fluid mixture comprising passing the fluid mixture in contact with a membrane comprising:
- a fabric layer;
- a PBI layer bonded to the fabric layer;
- and further characterizable by:
- a) wherein the porous PBI membrane comprises a CO2 permeance in the range of 50 to 260 kGPU, or 20 to 50 kGPU, or 100 to 400 kGPU, or a N2 permeance in the range of 50 to 300 kGPU, or 20 to 50 kGPU, or 100 to 500 kGPU, preferably a gas (CO2 or N2) permeance of at least 200 kGPU;
- b) wherein the PBI layer comprises a pore size of less than 50 nm, and a surface porosity of at least 8%;
- or
- c) 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 (or at least 3 or at least 5), wherein aspect ratio is defined as maximum length divided by average width (diameter) of each pore, and where length is perpendicular to the surface of the fabric layer.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.