In Situ Permeability Measurements and Impedance Spectroscopy for Assessing Separation Performance and Nano-Structure in CO2-Selective Polymeric Mixed-Matrix Membrane

A hollow fiber-supported polymeric mixed-matrix membrane, consisting of a Pebax-1657 matrix and graphene nanoplatelet (GNP) fillers as the selective layer, was tested for CO2/CH4 gas separation at transmembrane pressures up to 30 bar(a). Using a custom, novel, membrane module, we simultaneously performed permeability/selectivity and in situ electric impedance spectroscopy measurements. This in situ technique is proposed here for the first time. Furthermore, stable mixed-gas selectivities, for 10% CO2 in CH4 gas, reaching up to 61.4 (M0) and 68.5 after heat treatment (M2) were observed at 20–30 bar(a), whereas the stressed state (M1) dropped to ~22. Throughout the whole procedure of the three (initial, degraded, and restored) membrane testing assessments, a gradual decline in gas permeability coupled with a corresponding increase in the membrane’s AC resistance, due to membrane compaction, was evident. More specific, the membrane’s AC resistance, R1, increased from ~96–147 ΜΩ (M0) to ~402–435 ΜΩ (M1) and ~5390–5700 ΜΩ (M2), while the peak-phase frequency fp decreased from ~1.25 kHz (M0) to ~340 Hz (M1) and ~115 Hz (M2). Overall, this work proposes a new tool/method for connecting membrane’s deterioration phenomena with AC resistance and demonstrates that a facile heat treatment can restore selectivity following compaction, despite the absence of full permeance recovery.