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Updated: Mar 23, 2026
Electrophoretic Crystallization of Ultrathin High-performance Metal-organic Framework Membranes
Published on: August 16, 2018
Ultra-thin film composite mixed matrix membranes incorporating iron(III)-dopamine nanoparticles for CO2 separation
Jinguk Kim1, Qiang Fu1, Joel M P Scofield1
1Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Gas Technology, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The University of Melbourne, VIC 3010, Australia and Polymer Science Group, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The University of Melbourne, VIC 3010, Australia. gregghq@unimelb.edu.au.
Abstract:
Iron dopamine nanoparticles (FeDA NPs) are incorporated into a nanoscale thick polyethylene glycol (PEG) matrix for the first time, to form ultra-thin film composite mixed matrix membranes (UTFC-MMMs) via a recently developed continuous assembly of polymers (CAP) nanotechnology. The FeDA NPs are prepared by in situ nano-complexation between Fe(3+) and DA and have a particle size that can be varied from 3 to 74 nanometers by adjusting the molar ratio of DA to Fe(3+) ion. The cross-linked selective layer with sub 100 nanometer thickness is prepared by atom transfer radical polymerisation of a mixture of PEG macrocross-linkers and FeDA NPs on top of a highly permeable poly(dimethyl siloxane) (PDMS) prelayer, which is spin-coated onto a porous polyacrylonitrile (PAN) substrate. The incorporation of the FeDA NPs within the PEG-based selective layer is confirmed by XPS analysis. The UTFC-MMMs (thickness: ∼45 nm) formed present excellent gas separation performance with a CO2 permeance of ∼1200 GPU (1 GPU = 10(-6) cm(3) (STP) cm(-2) s(-1) cmHg(-1)) and an enhanced CO2/N2 selectivity of over 35, which is the best performance for UTFC membranes in the reported literature.
