Gas Sorption and Diffusion in Amorphous and Semicrystalline Nanoporous Poly(2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene)oxide

In this contribution is presented an analysis of mass transport properties of low molecular weight compounds in amorphous PPO and in two semicrystalline PPOs obtained by treating with benzene and carbon tetrachloride the amorphous sample. It is found that semicrystalline samples are endowed with larger gas sorption capacity and diffusivity as compared to the amorphous ones: this behavior has been attributed prevalently to the nanoporous nature of the crystalline phases induced by treatment with solvents. In particular, sorption experiments, carried out at 30 °C with methane, carbon dioxide, propane and propylene, have shown that both semicrystalline PPOs display rather interesting features which make them suitable for use as membrane materials in gas separation processes, in view of the relatively high values of solubility and diffusivity. Moreover, these peculiar sorption and mass transport properties have been found to be virtually unaffected by thermal aging: in fact, sorption experiments conducted on amorphous and semicrystalline PPO after treatment at 65 °C for three months showed that sorption and transport properties of aged samples are the same as for the untreated ones. This is an important feature to ensure the stability of performances in membrane applications.