Silver-impregnated polybenzoxazine membranes for CO2/CH4 gas separation

Abstract

Carbon dioxide and methane are the major components in flue gas which generally comes from industrial processes. Carbon dioxide is the main gas that causes global warming. This work investigated the effect of silver-impregnated polybenzoxazine membrane on CO2/CH4 separation. Silver ions were impregnated into fully-cured polybenzoxazine to enhance the separation efficiency, since silver ions can react reversibly and selectively with CO2 by π -complexation formation mechanism. DSC was used to observe the thermal behavior of polybenzoxazine. The silver-impregnated polybenzoxazine was characterized by FT-IR. The elemental composition on the surface was analyzed by energy dispersion of X-ray (EDX). The single gas experiments were conducted at room temperature under an absolute pressure of 24.59 psia, using the membranes with the thickness of 2 mm. The results showed that CO2 permeability decreased when silver ions increased.