• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.177-183
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• 2020

To utilize hydrogen energy, high-yield, high-purity hydrogen needs to be produced; therefore, hydrogen separation membrane studies are being conducted. The membrane reactor that fabricates hydrogen needs to have high hydrogen permeability, selective permeability, heatresistant and a stable mechanical membrane. Dense membranes of Pd and Pd alloys are usually used, but these have drawbacks associated with high cost and durability. Therefore, many researchers have studied replacing Pd and Pd alloys. Dense TiN membrane is highly selective and can separate high-purity hydrogen. The porous alumina has a high permeation rate but low selectivity; therefore, separating high-purity hydrogen is difficult. To overcome this drawback, the two materials are combined as composite reclamations to produce a separation membrane with a high penetration rate and high selectivity. Accordingly, TiN-alumina was manufactured using a high-energy ball mill. The TiN-alumina membrane was characterized by X-ray diffraction analysis, scanning electron microscopy, and energy dispersive spectroscopy. The hydrogen permeability of the TiN-alumina membrane was estimated by a Sievert-type hydrogen permeation membrane apparatus. Due to the change in the diffusion mechanism, the transmittance value was lower than that of the general TiN ceramic separator.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.453-462
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• 2014

Thin film composite (TFC) polyamide (PA) membranes were prepared on polyester (PET) nonwoven reinforced polysulfone supports for forward osmosis (FO) processes. PSF (polysulfone) supports were prepared via the phase inversion process from PSF casting solutions in dimethyl formamide (DMF) solvents (19 wt%) by using a PET nonwoven (thickness of $100{\mu}m$) as a mechanical reinforcing material for reverse osmosis (RO) membrane. The PSF support from 19 wt% of DMF/PSF casting solution showed sponge-like morphology and asymmetric internal structure. To reduce the internal concentration polarization in FO operation, thin ($20{\mu}m$ of thickness) nonwoven-supported PSF supports were prepared by using PSF/DMF casting solution (9~19 wt%). A desirable support structure with a highly porous sponge-like morphology were achieved from the thin nonwoven-supported PSF layer prepared with 9~12 wt% casting solution. A crosslinked aromatic polyamide layer was fabricated on top of each support to form a TFC PA membrane. The tested sample from 12 wt% of DMF/PSF casting solution presented outstanding FO performance, almost 5.5 times higher water flux (24.3 LMH) with low reverse salt flux (RDF, 1.5 GMH) compared to a thick nonwoven rainforced membrane (4.5 LMH of flux and 3.47 GMH of RSF). By reducing the thickness of the nonwoven and optimizing PSF concentration of casting solution, the morphology of the prepared membranes were changed from a dense structure to a porous sponge structure in the boundary area between nonwoven and PET support layer.

• Proceedings of the Membrane Society of Korea Conference
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• 1999.07a
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• pp.39-42
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• 1999

Perfluoropolymers represent the ultimate resistance to hostile chemical environments and high service temperature, attributed to the presence of fluorine in the polymer backbone, i.e. to the high bond energy of C-F and C-C bonds of fluorocarbons. Copolymers of Tetrafluoroethylene (TEE) and 2, 2, 4Trifluoro-5Trifluorometoxy- 1, 3Dioxole (TTD), commercially known as HYFLON AD, are amorphous perfluoropolymers with glass transition temperature (Tg)higher than room temperature, showing a thermal decomposition temperature exceeding 40$0^{\circ}C$. These polymer systems are highly soluble in fluorinated solvents, with low solution viscosities. This property allows the preparation of self-supported and composite membranes with desired membrane thickness. Symmetric and asymmetric perfluoropolymer membranes, made with HYFLON AD, have been prepared and evaluated. Porous and not porous symmetric membranes have been obtained by solvent evaporation with various processing conditions. Asymmetric membranes have been prepared by th wet phase inversion method. Measure of contact angle to distilled water have been carried out. Figure 1 compares experimental results with those of other commercial membranes. Contact angles of about 120$^{\circ}$for our amorphous perfluoropolymer membranes demonstrate that they posses a high hydrophobic character. Measure of contact angles to hexandecane have been also carried out to evaluate the organophobic character. Rsults are reported in Figure 2. The observed strong organophobicity leads to excellent fouling resistance and inertness. Porous membranes with pore size between 30 and 80 nanometers have shown no permeation to water at pressures as high as 10 bars. However high permeation to gases, such as O2, N2 and CO2, and no selectivities were observed. Considering the porous structure of the membrane, this behavior was expected. In consideration of the above properties, possible useful uses in th field of gas- liquid separations are envisaged for these membranes. A particularly promising application is in the field of membrane contactors, equipments in which membranes are used to improve mass transfer coefficients in respect to traditional extraction and absorption processes. Gas permeation properties have been evaluated for asymmetric membranes and composite symmetric ones. Experimental permselectivity values, obtained at different pressure differences, to various single gases are reported in Tab. 1, 2 and 3. Experimental data have been compared with literature data obtained with membranes made with different amorphous perfluoropolymer systems, such as copolymers of Perfluoro2, 2dimethyl dioxole (PDD) and Tetrafluorethylene, commercialized by the Du Pont Company with the trade name of Teflon AF. An interesting linear relationship between permeability and the glass transition temperature of the polymer constituting the membrane has been observed. Results are descussed in terms of polymer chain structure, which affects the presence of voids at molecular scale and their size distribution. Molecular Dyanmics studies are in progress in order to support the understanding of these results. A modified Theodoru- Suter method provided by the Amorphous Cell module of InsightII/Discover was used to determine the chain packing. A completely amorphous polymer box of about 3.5 nm was considered. Last but not least the use of amorphous perfluoropolymer membranes appears to be ideal when separation processes have to be performed in hostile environments, i.e. high temperatures and aggressive non-aqueous media, such as chemicals and solvents. In these cases Hyflon AD membranes can exploit the outstanding resistance of perfluoropolymers.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.08a
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• pp.265.1-265.1
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• 2013

Nanoporous anodic aluminum oxide (AAO), a self-ordered hexagonal array has various applications for nanofabrication such as nanotemplate, and nanostructure. In order to obtain highly-ordered porous alumina membranes, Masuda et al. proposed a two-step anodization process however this process is confined to small domain size and long hours. Recently, alternative methods overcoming limitations of two-step process were used to make prepatterned Al surface. In this work, we confirmed that there is a specific tendency used a PDMS stamp to obtain a pre-patterned Al surface. Using the nanoindentaions of a PDMS stamp as chemical carrier for wet etching, we can easily get ordered nanoporous template without two-step process. This chemical etching method using a PDMS stamp is very simple, fast and inexpensive. We use two types of PDMS stamps that have different intervals (800nm, 1200nm) and change some parameters have influenced the patterning of being anodized, applied voltage, soaking and stamping time. Through these factors, we demonstrated the patterning effect of large scale PDMS stamp.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.442-455
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• 2022

High-temperature polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (HT-PEMFC) has been studied as an alternative to low-temperature PEMFC due to its fast activation of electrodes and high resistance to electrode poisoning by carbon monoxide. It is highly required to develop stable PEMs operating at high temperatures even doped by ion-conducting materials for the development of high-performance and durable HT-PEMFC systems. A number of studies have been conducted to develop polybenzimidazole (PBI)-based PEMs for applications in HT-PEMFC due to their high interaction with doped ion-conducting materials and outstanding thermomechanical stability under high-temperature operation. This review focused on the development of PBI-based PEMs showing high performance and durability. Firstly, the characteristic behavior of PBI-based PEMs doped with various ion-conducting materials including phosphoric acid was systematically investigated. And then, a comparison of the physicochemical properties of the PEMs according to the different membrane manufacturing processes was conducted. Secondly, the incorporation of porous polytetrafluoroethylene substrate and/or inorganic composites to PBI matrix to improve the membrane performances was studied. Finally, the construction of cross-linked structures into PBI-based PEM systems by polymer blending method was introduced to improve the PEM properties.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.191-200
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• 2023

Polyethersulfone (PES) is a widely employed membrane material for water and industrial purification applications owing to its hydrophilicity and ease of phase separation. However, PES membranes and filters prepared using the nonsolvent induced phase separation method often encounter significant flux decline due to pore clogging and cake layer formation on the dense membrane surfaces. Our investigation revealed that tight microfiltration or loose ultrafiltration membranes can be subject to physical fouling due to the formation of a dense skin layer on the bottom side caused by water intrusion to the gap between the shrank membrane and the substrate. To investigate the effect of the bottom surface porosity on membrane fouling, two membranes with the same selective layers but different sub-layer structures were prepared using single and double layer casting methods, respectively. The double layered PES membrane with highly porous bottom surface showed high flux and physical fouling tolerance compared to the pristine single layer membrane. This study highlights the importance of physical optimization of the membrane structure to prevent membrane fouling.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.183-188
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• 2004

In order to develop polymer electrolyte for lithium/sulfur batteries, highly microporous P(VdF-HFP) membranes were prepared by phase inversion method. Porous structure was controlled by extracting NMP with mixture of deionized water and methanol. Porous structure of the membranes was observed with SEM. Polymer electrolytes were prepared by soaking the porous membranes in 1M $LiCF_3SO_3-TEGDME/EC$. The ionic conductivity of polymer electrolyte was found to be at high as $2\times10^{-3}S/cm$ when the polymer membrane extracted by $80\%$ methanol was used. The microporous polymer electrolyte optimized in this work displayed high ionic conductivity, uniform pore size, low interfacial resistance and stable ionic conductivity with storage time. The ionic conductivity of polymer electrolytes was measured with various lithium salts, and the conductivity showed $3.3\times10^{-3}S/cm$ at room temperature when $LiPF_6$ was used as a lithium salt.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.420-432
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• 2020

Random copolymers made of both 'polymer of intrinsic microporosity (PIM-1)' and Ellagic acid were prepared for the first time by a facile one-step polycondensation reaction. By combining the highly porous and contorted structure of PIM (polymers with intrinsic microporosity) and flat-type hydrophilic ellagic acid, the membranes obtained from these random copolymers [(PIM-co-EA)-x] showed high CO2 permeability (> 4516 Barrer) with high CO2/N2 (> 23~26) and CO2/CH4 (> 18~19) selectivity, that surpassed the Robeson upper bound (2008) for both pairs of the gas mixture. Incorporation of flat-type ellagic acid into the PIM-1 not only enhances the gas permeability by disturbing the kinked structure of PIM-1 but also increases the selectivity of CO2 over N2 and CH4, due to an increase of rigidity and polarity in the resultant copolymer membranes.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.427-438
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• 2023

In this study, in order to improve the performance of the reverse osmosis membrane with high water flux and high salt rejection, a study was conducted on the evaluation of characteristics according to the curing temperature and time during various additives and interfacial polymerization. The morphology of the membrane with no additives and the membrane with additives both showed a "rigid-and-valley" structure, confirming that the polyamide layer was successfully polymerized on the surface of the porous support layer. In addition, the additive of 2-Ethyl-1,3-hexanediol (EHD) had improved hydrophilicity and water flux, which was confirmed by measuring the contact angle. Finally, a highly permeable TFC membrane with NaCl and MgSO₄ salt rejection of 97.78% and 98.7% and a high water flux of 3.31 L/(m²⋅h⋅bar) was prepared.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.167-181
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• 2017

Graphene-based materials have been considered as a promising membrane material, due to its easy processability and atomic thickness. In this study, we studied on gas permeation behavior in few-layered GO membranes prepared by spin-coating method. The GO membrane structures were varied by using different GO flake sizes and GO solutions at various pH levels. The GO membranes prepared small flake size show more permeable and selective gas separation properties than large one due to shortening tortuosity. Also gas transport behaviors of the GO membranes are sensitive to slit width for gas diffusion because the pore size of GO membranes ranged from molecular sieving to Knudsen diffusion area. In particular, due to the narrow pore size of GO membranes and highly $CO_2$-philic properties of GO nanosheets, few-layered GO membranes exhibit ultrafast and $CO_2$ selective character in comparison with other gas molecules, which lead to outstanding $CO_2$ capture properties such as $CO_2/H_2$, $CO_2/CH_4$, and $CO_2/N_2$. This unusual gas transport through multi-layered GO nanosheets can explain a unique transport mechanism followed by an adsorption-facilitated diffusion behavior (i.e., surface diffusion mechanism). These findings provide the great insights for designing $CO_2$-selective membrane materials and the practical guidelines for gas transports through slit-like pores and lamellar structures.