Flexible Polypropylene-Supported ZIF-8 Membranes for Highly Efficient Propene/Propane Separation
Yali Zhao, Yanying Wei, Luxi Lyu, Qianqian Hou, Jürgen Caro, Haihui Wang
Abstract
Metal–organic framework (MOF) membranes have enormous potential in separation applications. There are several MOF membranes grown on polymer substrates aimed for scale-up, but their brittleness hampers any industrial application. Herein, intergrown continuous polypropylene (PP)-supported ZIF-8 membranes have been successfully synthesized via fast current-driven synthesis (FCDS) within 1 h. The PP-supported ZIF-8 membranes exhibit a promising separation factor of 122 ± 13 for binary C3H6–C3H8 mixtures combined with excellent flexibility behavior. The C3H6/C3H8 separation performance of the PP-supported ZIF-8 membrane was found to be constant after bending the supported ZIF-8 film with a curvature of 92 m–1. This outstanding mechanical property is crucial for practical applications. Moreover, we further synthesized ZIF-8 membranes on various polymer substrates and even polymer hollow fibers to demonstrate the production scalability.