Aliphatic-aromatic polyimide blends for H2 separation

In this work the synthesis of a semi aliphatic BTDA-DAH polyimide and their blends with BTDA-ODA and BTDA-DDS polyimides was carried out in order to improve the H-2 permselective properties of polyimides. The syntheses were made using the well-known two steps method and the silylation method. The prepared films were characterized by FTIR, DSC, thermal stability and fluorescence spectroscopy. Intercatenary distances (d-spacing) and gas separation properties were also investigated. PI blend membranes presented only one glass transition temperature (Tg) intermediate between those of the neat polyimides. Fluorescence spectra were a useful tool to recognize electron-donor and electron-acceptor interactions indicating intermolecular charge-transfer complex (CTC) formation which were confirmed by UV-Vis absorptions. As a result, a decrease in the intercatenary distances and a shift for both IR and fluorescence bands of polyimide blends were measured. PI blend membranes showed a permeability decrease with respect to the neat ones, while the selectivity increased according to X-ray diffraction results. To analyze the polyimide blend permselectivities, H-2/CH4, H-2/CO2, H-2/O-2 and H-2/N-2 systems were chosen. As a result, H-2/CH4 separation factor of PI blends was among the highest reported by other authors using traditional membrane materials. (C) 2010 Professor T. Nejat Veziroglu. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.