Development of Hollow Fiber Membranes Functionalized with Ionic Liquids for Enhanced CO₂ Separation

The combination of CO₂-selective ionic liquids (ILs) with block copolymers, such as Pebax 1657, has demonstrated an enhancement of the gas separation capabilities of polymeric membranes. In the current work, the development of composite membranes by applying a thin, concentrated selective layer made of Pebax/imidazolium-based ionic liquids (ILs) is presented. The objective of the experiments was to determine the optimized IL loading and investigate how the alteration of the anion impacts the properties of the membranes. Two membrane configurations have been studied: coated flat sheet membranes, supported on a porous poly(ether sulfone) (PES) layer, as well as composite hollow fiber membranes, supported on commercial polypropylene (PP) hollow fibers. Coated hollow fiber composites were fabricated using a continuous coating method, offering a straightforward scalability in the manufacturing process. The determined mechanical pressure stability of hollow fiber composites reached up to 5 bar, indicating their potential for various industrial gas separation applications. It was found that the Pebax 1657-based coating containing 40 wt % [C₆mim][NTf₂] yielded membranes with the best gas separation properties, for both the coated flat sheet and the hollow fiber configurations. The CO₂ permeance of hollow fibers reached 23.29 GPU, whereas the CO₂/N₂ ideal selectivity stood at 8.7, suggesting the necessity of the further enhancement of the coating technique, which can be achieved, for example, through application of multiple coatings. Nonetheless, the superior ideal selectivity of the CO₂/CO separation, reaching 12.44, gave a promising outlook for further novel membrane applications, which involve the separation of the aforementioned gases.