Membrane technology has emerged as an important separation process for H2 purification and CO2 capture. Conventional membrane material designs are often focused on rigid polymers with strong size sieving ability to enhance diffusivity selectivity. In contrast, our research focuses on the exploration of specific interactions between the penetrant and membrane materials to achieve high solubility selectivity and thus high separation performance. In this presentation, I will describe the design of mixed matrix materials (MMMs) containing palladium (Pd) nanoparticles, which have a strong affinity towards H2 and thus extremely high H2/CO2 solubility selectivity at 50 - 200 oC. The increase of Pd loading in polymers can increase the H2/CO2 selectivity by as much as 250%. I will also describe the design and synthesis of highly polar polymers containing ether oxygens with a strong affinity toward CO2 for CO2/N2 separation. These polymers are prepared from 1,3-dioxolane and contain higher ether oxygen content than poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO), and thus they exhibit more superior CO2/N2 separation properties than PEO-based membrane materials. The relationship between polymer structure and gas transport properties will be discussed in this presentation.
Biography:Dr. Haiqing Lin received his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 2005 and then joined Membrane Technology and Research, Inc. (MTR) as a Senior Research Scientist and Group Leader of the Gas Separations Group. Dr. Lin led projects on natural gas clean-up and CO2/H2 separation membranes, including the development of Polaris™ membranes for CO2 capture. He joined University at Buffalo (UB) as an assistant professor in 2013 and was promoted to associate professor in 2018 (with early promotion). His research is focused on advanced membranes for gas separation and water purification. He is a recipient of NSF CAREER award in 2016, and the Early Career Researcher of the Year at School of Engineering and Applied Science at UB in 2016.
