• Thickness dependence of CO2-induced plasticization of asymmetric flat sheet polyetherimide membrane, the 12th International Conference on membrane science and technology, Tehran, Iran, 2015 (with M. Saberi, S. A. Hashemifard)

Abstract

Penetrant induced plasticization of glassy membranes due to CO₂ has been the subject of a number of recent researches. Plasticization causes decreasing in membrane selectivity. In this work, effect of thickness on plasticization behavior of PEI membrane fabricated by dry/wet phase inversion was investigated. NMP as less volatile solvent, THF as volatile solvent and Ethanol as non-solvent was used for fabrication asymmetric membranes. Thickness of PEI membranes was changed with alteration in residence time of dry phase inversion step. The results show that for thin membranes, CO₂ permeance increased with pressure. For thicker membranes, CO₂ permeance is lower than thin films and permeance had initially decreasing trend, then increasing after a minimum reached. N₂ permeances decreased with increase in evaporation time and for all cases had constant trend with pressure.

Keywords: membrane, thickness, asymmetric, plasticization, permeance