SBIR Phase I: Novel Nanostructured Polymers for Membrane Separations

* 9760767 Pinnau 该小型企业创新研究第一阶段项目的重点是确定开发具有聚（1-三甲基甲硅烷基-1-丙炔）（PTMSP）的选择性和渗透性但具有更高耐溶剂性的聚乙炔基聚合物的可行性。 几种取代的聚乙炔聚合物具有非常高的自由体积分数（25%或更高），并且这些聚合物的流延膜包含连接的纳米多孔网络，其导致显著的气体渗透性能。 由这些聚合物制成的膜在分离可冷凝-不可冷凝气体混合物中显示出高渗透性和非常高的选择性。不幸的是，最具选择性和渗透性的聚乙炔，PTMSP，可溶于大多数烃类液体。因此，膜必须永远不会接触任何冷凝的蒸气或夹带的液滴，这在工业膜系统中可能发生。如果能够形成稳定的膜，将导致可冷凝的C3-C5烃与氮气、氢气和甲烷分离的突破。 这代表了石油化工、炼油厂和天然气加工工业中一个经济上重要的分离组。 该项目开发的新型纳米结构聚合物材料可用于形成用于广泛分离的膜，例如天然气处理，炼油厂的氢气回收，聚烯烃工厂中丙烯和乙烯的回收，以及石油化工厂排气中空气和氮气中挥发性有机化合物的分离。 ***

*** 9760767 Pinnau This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project focuses on determining the feasibility of developing polyacetylene-based polymers with the selectivity and permeability of poly(l-trimethylsilyl- 1 -propyne (PTMSP) but with much improved solvent resistance. Several substituted polyacetylene polymers have extraordinarily high fractional free volumes (25% or more), and cast films of these polymers contain a connected nanoporous network which leads to remarkable gas permeation properties. Membranes made from these polymers have shown high permeabilities and very high selectivity in separating condensable-noncondensable gas mixtures. Unfortunately, the most selective and permeable of the polyacetylenes, PTMSP, is soluble in most hydrocarbon liquids. Consequently, the membrane must never contact any condensed vapor or entrained liquid droplets, a likely occurrence in industrial membrane systems. If stable membranes can be formed, a breakthrough in the separation of condensable C3-C5 hydrocarbons from nitrogen, hydrogen and methane would result. This represents a large, economically important group of separations in the petrochemical, refinery, and natural gas processing industries. The novel nanostructured polymer materials to be developed in this project can be used to form membranes for a wide range of separations such as natural gas treatment, hydrogen recovery in refineries, recovery of propylene and ethylene in polyolefin plants, and separation of Volatile Organic Compounds from air and nitrogen in petrochemical plant vent gases. ***