Designing microporous polymers for gas and solvent separations

Zachary P. Smith
MIT Chemical Engineering

The chemical and petrochemical industries consume nearly 30% of global energy use, nearly half of which is a result of chemical separations. A major opportunity exists in identifying more efficient, productive, and environmentally friendly processes that operate in a continuous fashion. One attractive possibility is membrane-based separations, but significant materials limitations exist in designing membranes that can selectively distinguish between molecules with subangstrom differences in size and nearly identical thermodynamic properties. To survey these challenges and describe emerging opportunities, a brief overview of the current state-of-the-art in membrane-based materials and applications will be presented. Next, several design strategies will be presented on how to leverage pore structure and pore functionality to control separation performance. A
particular emphasis will be placed on new materials chemistries with a focus on testing materials under complex gas and solvent mixtures.
Microporous materials, including polymers of intrinsic microporosity (PIMs), will be highlighted to demonstrate the many opportunities that exist for scientists and engineers to tackle global challenges in chemical
separations today.

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