A novel acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene/poly(ethylene glycol) membrane: preparation, characterization, and gas permeation study

Polymeric membranes were prepared by blending different grades of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) as the added polymer with acrylonitrilebutadienestyrene as the backbone structure. The membranes were characterized by Fourier transform infrared, X-ray diffractometry, dynamic mechanical thermal analysis, differential scanning calorimetry, and scanning electron microscopy. Furthermore, the gas permeation and separation properties of CO2/CH4 were studied. In addition, the effect of pressure (18?bar) and the effect of PEG content (040 wt%) on CO2 and CH4 permeability/selectivity were investigated. The results showed that, in more cases, with the introduction of PEG molecules, CO2/CH4 selectivity increases without significant changes in CH4 permeability, indicating that the incorporation of intermolecular interaction is suitable for the separation of gas pairs with no molecular size domination but the solutiondiffusion. From the viewpoint of gas separation applications, the resultant data are in the commercially attractive region. Copyright (c) 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.