Deep eutectic solvent functionalized mesoporous silica SBA-15 based mixed matrix polymeric membranes for mitigation of CO2 (Extended Version)

Abstract

The carbon dioxide (CO₂) separation can be enhanced by using modified materials like a deep eutectic solvent (DES) modified mesoporous silica SBA-15 in polymeric support i.e polysulfone via mixed matrix membranes (MMMs). The pure SBA-15 and DES are potential candidates for the CO₂ capturing and their combination has not been reported yet. In this work, a fresh DES was synthesized by combining equal concentrations of Decanoic acid and choline chloride by mass. MMMs were fabricated by DES functionalized SBA-15 (DES-SBA) filler. The DES-SBA-based polymeric MMMs of different compositions, from 5% to 20% with the difference of five each, were developed and subjected to the gas permeation analysis to evaluate relative selectivities and permeabilities of membranes. The DES-SBA-based MMMs were characterized by SEM and FTIR to obtain distribution analysis of filler in the polymer matrix as well as the cross-sectional and surface morphology and the structural analysis of membranes, respectively. The gas permeation evaluations have been utilized to mixed and pure gas samples and the findings of selectivities for CO₂/N₂ and CO₂/CH₄ and permeabilities of synthesized MMMs are being reported. The performance of the MMMs has been enhanced via functionalization of SBA-15 by DES as compared to the neat polysulfone (PSF) based simple membrane.