TY - JOUR
T1 - Fabrication of defect‐free p84® polyimide hollow fiber for gas separation
T2 - Pathway to formation of optimized structure
AU - Etxeberria‐Benavides, Miren
AU - Karvan, Oguz
AU - Kapteijn, Freek
AU - Gascon, Jorge
AU - David, Oana
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - The elimination of the additional defect healing post‐treatment step in asymmetric hollow fiber manufacturing would result in a significant reduction in membrane production cost. However, obtaining integrally skinned polymeric asymmetric hollow fiber membranes with an ultrathin and defect‐free selective layer is quite challenging. In this study, P84® asymmetric hollow fiber membranes with a highly thin (~56 nm) defect‐free skin were successfully fabricated by fine tuning the dope composition and spinning parameters using volatile additive (tetrahydrofuran, THF) as key parameters. An extensive experimental and theoretical study of the influence of volatile THF addition on the solubility parameter of the N‐methylpyrrolidone/THF solvent mixture was performed. Although THF itself is not a solvent for P84®, in a mixture with a good solvent for the polymer, like N‐Methyl‐2‐pyrrolidone (NMP), it can be dissolved at high THF concentrations (NMP/THF ratio > 0.52). The as‐spun fibers had a reproducible ideal CO2/N2 selectivity of 40, and a CO2 permeance of 23 GPU at 35 °C. The fiber production can be scaled‐up with retention of the selectivity.
AB - The elimination of the additional defect healing post‐treatment step in asymmetric hollow fiber manufacturing would result in a significant reduction in membrane production cost. However, obtaining integrally skinned polymeric asymmetric hollow fiber membranes with an ultrathin and defect‐free selective layer is quite challenging. In this study, P84® asymmetric hollow fiber membranes with a highly thin (~56 nm) defect‐free skin were successfully fabricated by fine tuning the dope composition and spinning parameters using volatile additive (tetrahydrofuran, THF) as key parameters. An extensive experimental and theoretical study of the influence of volatile THF addition on the solubility parameter of the N‐methylpyrrolidone/THF solvent mixture was performed. Although THF itself is not a solvent for P84®, in a mixture with a good solvent for the polymer, like N‐Methyl‐2‐pyrrolidone (NMP), it can be dissolved at high THF concentrations (NMP/THF ratio > 0.52). The as‐spun fibers had a reproducible ideal CO2/N2 selectivity of 40, and a CO2 permeance of 23 GPU at 35 °C. The fiber production can be scaled‐up with retention of the selectivity.
KW - CO2/N2 separation
KW - Defect‐free fibers
KW - Hollow fiber spinning
KW - Ultrathin skin layer
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85077495028&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/membranes10010004
DO - 10.3390/membranes10010004
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85077495028
SN - 2077-0375
VL - 10
JO - Membranes
JF - Membranes
IS - 1
M1 - 4
ER -