Fabrication and Characterization of Ni(BDC)(TED)_0.5/Polysulfone Mixed Matrix Membrane

Mixed Matrix Membranes (MMMs) appear to be very potential materials to enable efficient gas permeation. MMMs consist of inorganic particle filler dispersed in a continuous polymeric matrix homogeneously. Among various type of filler materials, Metal Organic Frameworks (MOFs) have been discovered as the potential fillers to be used in fabrication of MMMs due to their high affinity with the polymer chains and high sorption capacity which is contributed by their high porosity properties. In this study, Ni(BDC)(TED)0.5, which is a type of MOFs was synthesized via solvothermal method at 120 °C for 48 hours and subsequently incorporated into polysulfone (Psf) matrix in order to fabricate MMMs. The loading of Ni(BDC)(TED)0.5 in the MMMs was varied from 5 wt% to 20 wt% in order to study the effect of fillers on the properties as well as CO_2 gas permeation performance of the MMMs. The property of the samples were investigated by using characterization method of X-ray diffractometer (XRD) and field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) coupled with energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectrometry. The synthesized Ni(BDC)(TED)0.5 was well crystallized and possessed an irregular elongated shape. FESEM and XRD results showed that Ni(BDC)(TED)0.5 was successfully incorporated into Psf polymer matrix. Lastly, gas permeation test was conducted to determine the CO_2 gas permeation. In this study, the CO_2/CH_4 selectivity increased when the filler loading increased from 5 wt% to 10 wt%, and the optimum CO_2/CH_4 selectivity of 11.75 was obtained with 10 wt% of Ni(BDC)(TED)0.5 incorporated into the MMMs.