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Microporous Polysulfones with Enhanced Separation Performance via Integration of the Triptycene Moiety
journal contribution
posted on 2019-12-13, 20:42 authored by Tanner Corrado, Zihan Huang, Joseph Aboki, Ruilan GuoHere, we report the synthesis of two polysulfones containing
either
triptycene or phenolphthalein as the bulky bridging unit in the polymer
backbone to investigate the influence of the rigid, unwieldy structures
on chain rigidity, fractional free volume, and gas transport properties.
Incorporation of the triptycene unit provided the most rigid backbone,
greatest fractional free volume, and strongest gas separation performance,
because of its exceptional combinations of permeability and selectivity,
relative to many commercial polymers and other polysulfones reported
in the literature. In addition, integration of the triptycene unit
and its intrinsic, configuration-based free volume provided good resistance
to physical aging. In particular, the triptycene-based polysulfone
experienced exceptional H2/CH4 selectivity (156)
combined with nearly doubled H2 permeability, as well as
promising O2/N2 separation performance with
an O2 permeability of 1.5 Barrer, which is an ∼21%
increase, relative to that of the bisphenol A-based commercial polysulfone,
to go along with an O2/N2 selectivity of 7.7.