Ultrathin Composite Polymeric Membranes for CO2/N2 Separation with Minimum Thickness and High CO2 Permeance

The use of ultrathin films as selective layers in composite membranes offers significant advantages in gas separation for increasing productivity while reducing the membrane size and energy costs. In this contribution, composite membranes have been obtained by the successive deposition of approximately 1nm thick monolayers of a polymer of intrinsic microporosity (PIM) on top of dense membranes of the ultra-permeable poly[1-(trimethylsilyl)-1-propyne] (PTMSP). The ultrathin PIM films (30nm in thickness) demonstrate CO2 permeance up to seven times higher than dense PIM membranes using only 0.04% of the mass of PIM without a significant decrease in CO2/N-2 selectivity.