Tailor-made microstructures lead to high-performance robust PEO membrane for CO2 capture via green fabrication technique

Abstract

Emerging excessive greenhouse gas emissions pose great threats to the ecosystem, which thus requires efficient CO₂ capture to mitigate the disastrous issue. In this report, large molecular size bisphenol A ethoxylate diacrylate (BPA) was employed to crosslink poly (ethylene glycol) methyl ether acrylate (PEGMEA) via the green and rapid UV polymerization strategy. The microstructure of such-prepared membrane could be conveniently tailored by tuning the ratio of the two prepolymers, aiming at obtaining the optimized microstructures with suitable mesh size and PEO sol content, which was approved by a novel low-field nuclear magnetic resonance technique. The optimum membrane overcomes the trade-off challenge: dense microstructures lower the gas permeability while loose microstructures lower high-pressure-resistance capacity, realizing a high CO₂ permeability of 1711 Barrer and 100-h long-term running stability under 15 atm. The proposed membrane fabrication approach, hence, opens a novel gate for developing high-performance robust membranes for CO₂ capture.