GAS SEPARATION MEMBRANE MATERIAL SELECTION CRITERIA - WEAKLY AND STRONGLY INTERACTING FEED COMPONENT SITUATIONS

Materials from the polyimide and polycarbonate families with an attractive combination of productivity and permselectivity for important gas pairs have been reported recently. A systematic group of materials from both of these families will be considered in this paper. Material optimization strategies in the absence of strong interactions between the membrane material and the penetrating gas mixture will also be discussed in the context of these materials. In addition, a material from a relatively unexplored family of rigid chain polymers, the polypyrrolones, will be compared to the behavior of the polycarbonates and polyimides. Performance for mixtures such as carbon dioxide and methane that interact relatively strongly will be contrasted those such as oxygen and nitrogen that interact weakly with the membrane materials.