Novel carbon molecular sieve membranes for CO2 separation derived from the zero-dimension carbon quantum dots doped polyimide

Carbon molecular sieve (CMS) membranes are very promising for efficient gas separation. In this work, a novel CMS membrane was constructed from the zero-dimension material doped polyimide precursor. The introduction of carbon quantum dots into the polyimide matrix precursor regulated the nanopores structure of the derived CMS membranes precisely for CO₂ separation. The PSD (pore size distribution) near 0.35 nm became narrower after the carbon quantum dots incorporation. And, the novel CMS membranes showed attracting enhancement of gas permeability (114.6 Barrer) and selectivity (94.7) for CO₂/CH₄ separation simultaneously, which broke 2008 upper bound. Furthermore, the zero-dimension materials are the promising fillers to regulate the nanopores structure of the CMS membranes.