Contracting authority: Executive Agency for Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation (UEFISCDI)

Project code: PN-III-P2-2.1-PED-2021-1666

Contract number: 718PED/2022  

Acronym: memPIM-PIs

Project Description

CO₂ capture and storage (CCS) was claimed as an essential R&D priority to accomplish the Europe 2050 climate objectives by using cost-effective strategies. The CO₂ capture procesess is still too expensive due to low CO₂ concentrations in the flue gas, making the amount of energy needed for capture to be process costly. Addressing the CCS Directive of the EU policy, memPIM-PIs aims at developing polymer membranes for sustainable CO₂ capture. To this goal, the synergistic effect between the PIM concept applied to polyimides and the facile blending method will be exploited as strategy to engineer novel CO₂ capture membranes. Thus, the chain flexibility and segmental mobility will be controlled by incorporating bulky groups and flexible linkages. Blending a fluorinated polyimide with a polyimide containing a bulky group will guide to a library of membranes resistant to ageing and plasticization. Our key strategy relies on the incorporation into polyimides of tertiary amine atoms as receptors for CO₂ through 1,3,5-triazine or triphenylamine that will induce adsorbate-adsorbent interactions favorable for CO₂ capture. The obtained membranes will be physico-chemically investigated and subjected to gas permeation tests. Their performance will be evaluated by plotting the CO₂ permeability and selectivity in Robeson diagrams.