Enhanced CO2/N2 separation performance by incorporating Zinc oxide nanoparticles in cross-linked Poly (ethylene glycol) diacrylate

Amin Jamshidpour¹ Ali Ghadimi² Toraj Mohammadi³

1) Research Centre for Membrane Separation Processes, Chemical Engineering Department, Iran University of Science and Technology (IUST), Narmak, Tehran, Iran.
2) Tel: +98 21 77240496, Fax: +98 21 77240495,
3) Department of Petrochemicals Synthesis, Iran Polymer and Petrochemical Institute, P.O. Box 14965/115, 14977-13115, Tehran, Iran

Publication : International Conference on Researches in Science & Engineering(icrsie.com)
Abstract :
For separation of carbon dioxide (CO2) from nitrogen, nanocomposite membranes were prepared by incorporation of Zinc oxide, ZnO, nanoparticles within Poly (ethylene glycol) diacrylate, PEGDA. Cross-linked poly (ethylene oxide) membranes, PEOs, are new polymeric groups to prepare fully amorphous membrane from liquid PEOs. In this investigation nanocomposite membranes were fabricated by in-situ UV photo-polymerization technique. Then, the effect of ZnO nanoparticles on the gas transport properties of the nanocomposite membranes was investigated using constant-volume method. The results showed that incorporation of ZnO nanoparticles enhances CO2/N2 separation performance by increasing both CO2 permeability and CO2/N2 selectivity, as the loading content of ZnO was increased. It was realized that the optimum loading content is equal to 4.5 wt.% which improves CO2 permeability and CO2/N2 selectivity about 60% and 20 %, respectively, compare to the neat membrane. Additionally, SEM-energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) revealed well dispersion quality of the nanoparticles through the polymeric matrix.
Keywords : Photo (polymerization) Zinc Oxide nanoparticles nanocomposite membrane CO2/N2 separation flue gas poly (ethylene oxide)