Approaches to suppress CO2-induced plasticization of polyimide membranes in gas separation applications

Abstract

Polyimides with excellent physicochemical properties have aroused a great deal of interest as gas separation membranes; however, the severe performance decay due to CO2-induced plasticization remains a challenge. Fortunately, in recent years, advanced plasticization-resistant membranes of great commercial and environmental relevance have been developed. In this review, we investigate the mechanism of plasticization due to CO2 permeation, introduce effective methods to suppress CO2-induced plasticization, propose evaluation criteria to assess the reduced plasticization performance, and clarify typical methods used for designing anti-plasticization membranes.