Pebax-Based Membrane Filled with Two-Dimensional Mxene Nanosheets for Efficient CO2 Capture

Mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) made from inorganic fillers and polymers is a kind of promising candidate for gas separation. In this work, two-dimensional MXene nanosheets were synthesized and incorporated into a polyether-polyamide block copolymer (Pebax) matrix to fabricate MMM for CO2 capture. The physicochemical properties of MXene nanosheets and MXene/Pebax membranes were studied systematically. The introduction of MXene nanosheets provided additional molecular transport channels and meanwhile enhanced the CO2 adsorption capacity, thereby enhancing both the CO2 peremance and CO2/N-2 selectivity of Pebax membrane. The optimized MXene/Pebax membrane with a MXene loading of 0.15 wt % displayed a high separation performance with a CO2 permeance of 21.6 GPU and a CO2/N-2 selectivity of 72.5, showing potential application in CO2 capture.