A Highly Permeable Aligned Montmorillonite Mixed-Matrix Membrane for CO2 Separation

Highly permeable montmorillonite layers bonded and aligned with the chain stretching orientation of polyvinylamineacid are immobilized onto a porous polysulfone substrate to fabricate aligned montmorillonite/polysulfone mixed-matrix membranes for CO2 separation. High-speed gas-transport channels are formed by the aligned interlayer gaps of the modified montmorillonite, through which CO2 transport primarily occurs. High CO2 permeance of about 800 GPU is achieved combined with a high mixed-gas selectivity for CO2 that is stable over a period of 600 h and independent of the water content in the feed.