POLYMERIC MIXED MATRIX MEMBRANES INCORPORATED WITH GRAPHENE OXIDE FOR H2/CO2 SEPARATION

Biohydrogen is a potential alternative for fossil fuels and it can be produced from POME fermentation. Membrane technology has been a prominent separation approach for H2 purification. However, membranes yield weakness in tradeoff between permeability and selectivity. The main objective of this project is to develop mixed matrix membrane with different polymeric bases of Polysulfone (PSF) and Polyimide (PI) with graphene oxide (GO) incorporation as inorganic filler for H2/CO2 separation. Gas permeability and selectivity results indicated that PI/GO membrane with 1 wt% of GO has the highest H2 and CO2 permeability at 501 GPU and 595 GPU at 1 bar, respectively, H2/CO2 selectivity of 1.01 at 5 bar and highest H2 purity of 83 %. FESEM analysis indicated changes in the pore size and top layer of membranes due to the presence of GO. Zeta potential analysis proved that PI/GO 1wt% membranes is highly negative-charged (-56 mV). Contact angle results showed a decrease in contact angle value with the addition of GO. It can be concluded that PI/GO 1 wt% membranes demonstrated better results in the aspects of permselectivity and physicochemical properties compared to PSF membranes.