Suppression of aging and plasticization in highly permeable polymers

Physical aging in high free volume polymers reduces gas permeability which limits their potential for gas separation. Plasticization is another concern when the separation involves a highly condensable gas such as CO2 or operates in aggressive conditions. This work reports a straightforward strategy to suppress aging and plasticization of polymers of intrinsic microporosity, specifically PIM-1, with a tailored high CO2 permeability, by the incorporation of POSS nanoparticles. The nanoparticles enhances gas diffusivity at low particle loadings while induces chain rigidification at high particle loadings. The newly developed membrane materials are promising for CO2 capture and other gas separation. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.