A review of mixed matrix membranes incorporated with hollow fillers for CO2 separation

•The hollow fillers applied in CO2 separation membranes are introduced.•Recent progress of symmetric MMMs incorporated with hollow fillers for CO2 separation is summarized.•Recent progress of integrally asymmetric MMMs incorporated with hollow fillers for CO2 separation is summarized.•Recent progress of TFC-MMMs based on hollow fillers for CO2 separation is summarized.•The challenges and prospects of CO2 separation MMMs based on hollow fillers are proposed. Compared with the commercially available polymeric CO2 separation membranes in industry, which suffer from the permeability/selectivity trade-off relation, the mixed matrix membrane has been considered one of the potential substitutes because it combines the advantages of both matrices and fillers. Recently, hollow fillers have drawn the attention of researchers, which enhance permeation performance mainly by reducing mass transport resistance. This review concentrates on recent advances and developments of the mixed matrix membrane incorporated with various hollow fillers for CO2 separation, including one-dimensional filler (e.g. nanotubes) and three-dimensional fillers (e.g. hollow zeolite and hollow metal–organic framework). Furthermore, the present work also highlights the developments of the integrally asymmetric mixed matrix membrane and the thin-film composite mixed-matrix membrane with a mixed-matrix separation layer.