Flexible Membranes of Fused Block Copolymer Vesicles for CO₂ Separation

In CO2 separation and purification, the membrane separation technology has the most potential. Homogeneous membranes such as polyimide membranes have advantages of easy preparation and good mechanical properties but exhibit low CO2 permeability. Heterogeneous membranes such as mixed matrix membranes show high CO2 permeability and CO2/CH4 selectivity but have poor mechanical strength and complicated membrane production. Here, we prepare a novel separation membrane by fused chelate block copolymer vesicles in the presence of Co salt. This resultant membrane combines the advantages of homogeneous membranes with easy preparation and good mechanical property and heterogeneous membranes with high CO2 permeability, which shows good prospects for industrial application. For example, the resultant membrane exhibits remarkable mechanical properties, such as an elongation at break of 210% and a tensile strength of 8 MPa, and exhibits a CO2 permeability of 730.5 Barrer and a CO2/CH4 selectivity of 13.5.