Fabrication of Microphase-Separated Tröger’s Base Polymer Membranes for Oxygen Enrichment

Tröger's base (TB) polymers have received increasing attention as a novel class of polymers with intrinsic microporosity, particularly for applications in gas separation. In this study, TB was quaternized with hydrophobic long chains to create a microphase-separated structure to enhance gas separation performance. On one hand, the tertiary amine structure of TB enabled facile grafting modification through the Menshutkin reaction. On the other hand, microphase-separated channels were created in the quaternized Tröger's base (QTB) membrane due to the polarity differences between the hydrophilicity of the quaternary ammonium groups and hydrophobicity of iodoalkanes, providing channels for gas transport within the membrane and thereby improving permeability selectivity. The successful synthesis of QTB membranes was confirmed by FTIR and ¹H NMR spectroscopy, while AFM and SAXS analyses validated the microphase-separated morphology. To investigate the impact of microphase separation on oxygen permeability and selectivity, different iodoalkanes and various concentrations of iodobutane were grafted onto the TB backbone. Among the prepared membranes, QTB-C₄-70% membrane exhibited the highest in O₂ permeability. Gas separation performance under different O₂ pressures and temperatures revealed that O₂ permeability decreased slightly with increasing pressure, indicating good pressure stability of the membrane. With increasing temperature, the permeability increased while the selectivity decreased. These findings demonstrated that microphase-separated QTB membranes offer a viable strategy for creating effective materials for gas separation.