Ultra-thin metal oxide films for gas separation

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26889045
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: Properties in chemical engineering process/Transfer operation/Unit operation
• Research Institution: Kyushu University
• Principal Investigator: Selyanchyn Roman 九州大学, カーボンニュートラルエネルギー国際研究所, 学術研究員 (90729790)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-08-29 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: carbon dioxide / gas separation / laminate membrane / titanium dioxide / composite materials / nanomembrane / molecular imprinting / carbon-neutral energy

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Current research project was devoted to the development of the double layer composite membrane for efficient separation of carbon dioxide. Polydimethylsiloxane was used as a support layer and phthalic acid incorporated titanium dioxide as a selective layer. Developed membranes demonstrated unique gas separation performance with high selectivity separation of carbon dioxide and nitrogen.
The mechanism of gases separation was attributed to the abundance of the carboxylic groups originated from the incorporated acids. The mechanism of material selectivity was verified using theoretical calculations (density functional theory). According to the calculations we have succeeded to create CO2-philic sites in the composite phthalic acid/titanium dioxide layer. These sites exhibit much higher attractive force for carbon dioxide gas compared to nitrogen. As a result we have in fact achieved the translation of the molecular level property (chemical affinity) to the material (high selectivity).

Free Research Field

Materials chemistry