Fabrication of high-performance facilitated transport membranes for CO2 separationElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Details of experimental procedures, characterization techniques and characterization data, performance comparison of membranes, stability of the PEIE-HT membrane in simulated flue gas. See DOI: 10.1039/c3sc53334d

At present, liquid membranes, ion-exchange membranes and fixed carrier membranes are the three popular facilitated transport membranes for CO 2 separation. They possess their own advantages, as well as their respective deficiencies. In view of the characters of these three types of facilitated transport membrane, we report a method to combine their advantages and overcome their deficiencies. A new membrane was fabricated by establishing high-speed facilitated transport channels in the fixed carrier membrane. This membrane displays excellent CO 2 separation performance and good stability. The results suggest that this is an effective way to fabricate high performance and high stability CO 2 separation membranes. Furthermore, establishing high-speed facilitated transport channels in fixed carrier membranes will be a universal route to improve the performance of gas separation membranes. At present, liquid membranes, ion-exchange membranes and fixed carrier membranes are the three popular facilitated transport membranes for CO 2 separation. We report a method to combine their advantages and overcome their deficiencies.