Preparation Of PMMA-b-PDMAEMA Composite Membranes By RAFT Polymerization For CO₂ Separation

The study on CO₂ separation is one of the most important subjects in recent years, and the facilitated transport membrane with fixed carrier is most interesting kind of separation membranes for this purpose. Recently much attention has been paid to reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) mediated living free radical polymerization in polymer chemistry.Reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) free-radical polymerization of methyl methacrylate was investigated by using monocarboxyl-terminated trithiocarbonate derivative as chain transfer agent and azobisisobutyronitrile as initiator in 1,4-dioxane solvent. The derived well-controlled amphipathic block copolymer (PMMA-b- PDMAEMA) was prepared by using the above obtained polymer as macromolecular reversible addition- fragmentation chain transfer agent and 2-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate as a second monomer. The structures of products were characterized by FTIR,1H NMR and GPC.The PMMA-b-PDMAEMA/ polysulfone composite membranes was prepared and its microstructure. The CO₂ and N2 permeation performance of the PMMA-b-PDMAEMA/ polysulfone composite membranes was test at different pressure, test temperature and humidity. The results showed that the resulted composited membrane posses good permeation performance for CO₂. With increasing the operation pressure, the permeation flux of CO₂ increases; the permeation flux increases steady with increasing feed temperature; the permeation flux of the wet membrane are more than the dry membrane's.