Design of a Tunable, High‐performance Mixed Matrix Membrane Platform for Gas Separations
Membrane technology offers substantial economic and environmental benefits for energy-intensive chemical separations. Chabazite-type zeolite, possessing a 3-D channel system with molecular-sieving windows, can be an ideal membrane material, but conditions to synthesize zeolite-only membranes limit optimization strategies. Guided by advanced quantum chemistry calculations on inner-pore molecular interactions, zeolite properties are tailored for different separations and optimized particles incorporated in polyimide at very high loadings. A membrane platform is thus created that largely outperforms state-of-the-art membranes for a broad variety of industry-relevant applications, that is, carbon capture, natural gas/biogas purification, hydrocarbon, helium and hydrogen recovery. Accurate size-sieving of gas molecules is realized together with rational determination of optimal gas-zeolite interactions. Crucial for industrial applications, these well-tuned membranes displayed excellent non-aging properties, high flexibility and higher mixed-gas selectivities than ideal-gas selectivities. Moreover, they performed even better at low CO<sub>2</sub>-partial pressure in CO<sub>2</sub>-removal and can be made humidity-insensitive.
Authors
- Sven Robijns (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9229-1578)
- Dimitrios Sakellariou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7424-5543)
- Marcel Dickmann (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-8971-7626)
- Ricardo Helm (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-2048-0144)
- Cédric Van Goethem (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2218-2143)
- Xiaoyu Tan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7146-1718)
- Imran Aslam (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2917-5950)
- Michiel Dusselier (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3074-2318)
- Tom Van der Donck (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5216-7425)
- Niels De Witte (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3541-1382)
- Ivo F.J. Vankelecom (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0104-9493)
- Quanli Ke (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9123-5803)
- Thibaut Donckels (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3690-6552)
- Ruben Goeminne (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8920-3362)
- Rodrigo de Oliveira Silva (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3903-2678)
- Tom Van Assche (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0739-5688)
- Véronique Van Speybroeck (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2206-178X)
- Aran Lamaire (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0093-5490)
- Rhea Verbeke (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7130-6918)
- Yun Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6979-0299)
Institutions
- Vrije Universiteit Brussel (BE)
- Ghent University (BE)
- Universität der Bundeswehr München (DE)
- Zhejiang University of Technology (CN)
- KU Leuven (BE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Advanced Materials
- Published
- 2025-06-13
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202502393
- Citations
- 14
- Primary Topic
- Membrane Separation and Gas Transport
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 9.99
Funders
- Agentschap Innoveren en Ondernemen
- Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek
- KU Leuven
- Vlaamse regering
- Herculesstichting
- Moonshot Research and Development Program