High-Permeance Room-Temperature Ionic-Liquid-Based Membranes for CO2/N-2 Separation

We have developed and fabricated thin-film composite (TFC) membranes with an active layer consisting of a room-temperature ionic liquid/polymerized (room-temperature ionic liquid) [i.e., (RTIL)/poly(RTIL)] composite material. The resulting membrane has a CO2 permeance of 6100 +/- 400 GPU (where 1 GPU = 10(-6) cm(3)/(cm(2) s cmHg)) and an ideal CO2/N-2 selectivity of 22 +/- 2. This represents a new membrane with state-of-the-art CO2 permeance and good CO2/N-2 selectivity. To our knowledge, this is the first example of a TFC gas separation membrane composed of an RTIL-containing active layer.