CO<sub>2</sub>-Philic Nanocomposite Polymer Matrix Incorporated with MXene Nanosheets for Ultraefficient CO<sub>2</sub> Capture
Chen Wang, Ji Wu, Yinglin Wang, Pengfei Cheng, Shanfu Sun, Tianliang Wang, Zhaohui Lei, Xialu Niu, Luping Xu
Abstract
The incorporation of two-dimensional (2D) functional nanosheets in polymeric membranes is a promising material strategy to overcome their inherent performance trade-off behavior. Herein, we report a novel nanocomposite membrane design by incorporating MXene, a 2D sheet-like nanoarchitecture known for its advantageous lamellar morphology and surface functionalities, into a cross-linked polyether block amide (Pebax)/poly(ethylene glycol) methyl ether acrylate (PEGMEA) blend matrix, which delivered exceptional CO 2 /N 2 and CO 2 /H 2 separation performances that are critical to industrial CO 2 capture applications. The finely dispersed Ti 3 C 2 T x nanosheets in the blend polymer matrix led to an expansion of the free volume within the resultant mixed matrix membrane (MMM), giving rise to a substantially enhanced CO 2 permeability of up to 1264.6 barrer, which is 102% higher than that of the pristine polymer. Moreover, these MXene-incorporated MMMs exhibited preferential sorption for CO 2 over light gases, which contributed to an exceptional CO 2 /N 2 and CO 2 /H 2 selectivity (64.3 and 19.2, respectively) even at a small loading of only 1 wt %, allowing the overall performance to not only surpass the latest upper bounds but also exceed many previously reported high-performance nanosheet-based nanocomposite membranes. Long-term performance tests have also demonstrated the good stability of these membranes. This composite membrane design strategy reveals the remarkable potential of combining a blend copolymer matrix with ultrathin MXene nanosheets to achieve superior gas separation performance for environmentally important gas separations.