In Situ Derived Hybrid Carbon Molecular Sieve Membranes with Tailored Ultramicroporosity for Efficient Gas Separation

Fine control of ultramicroporosity (<7 Å) in carbon molecular sieve (CMS) membranes is highly desirable for challenging gas separation processes. Here, a versatile approach proposed to fabricate hybrid CMS (HCMS) with unique textural properties as well tunable ultramicroporosity. The HCMS are formed by pyrolysis polymer nanocomposite precursor containing metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) carbonizable nanoporous filler. MOF-derived carbonaceous phase displays good compatibility the polymer-derived matrix due homogeneity two phases, substantially enhancing mechanical robustness resultant membranes. Detailed structural analyses reveal that situ embedded MOFs induces more densified and interconnected structures compared those conventional membranes, leading bimodal narrow pore size distributions ultramicroporous region. Eventually, exhibit far superior performances strong size-sieving ability than polymers especially closely sized pairs (?d < 0.5 including CO2/CH4 C3H6/C3H8 separations. More importantly, developed material successfully prepared into thin-film composite (TFC) membrane (?1 µm), demonstrating its practical feasibility use industrial mixed-gas operation conditions.