Issue 9, 2015

Using intermolecular interactions to crosslink PIM-1 and modify its gas sorption properties

Abstract

The intermolecular interactions between the “polymer of intrinsic microporosity” PIM-1 and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) have been investigated with the aim of modifying the gas sorption and physical properties. Mixing PIM-1 with selected PAHs resulted in rapid precipitation of polymer. Blending PIM-1 with pyrene had a significant effect of the gas sorption properties of the resulting films; dramatically reduced N2 uptake (77 K), whilst CO2 uptake at 298 K was only slightly reduced. A gate-opening behaviour was also observed for the N2 gas sorption (77 K), which was related to the pyrene content of the blend. Using an electron-donating PAH as the additive resulted in a stronger interaction. By exploiting a post-modification strategy after PIM-1 film formation, the absorption of either pyrene or 1-aminopyrene produced films with higher elastic moduli and greatly improved CO2/N2 gas sorption selectivities (293 K). Single gas permeability measurements revealed that while the 1-aminopyrene modified film possessed reduced CO2 permeability, it possessed enhanced CO2/N2 selectivity. Importantly, the ageing of the permeability was halted over the 50 days tested, likely due to the physical crosslinking of the polymer chains by 1-aminopyrene.

Graphical abstract: Using intermolecular interactions to crosslink PIM-1 and modify its gas sorption properties

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
10 nov 2014
Accepted
23 jan 2015
First published
26 jan 2015
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

J. Mater. Chem. A, 2015,3, 4855-4864

Author version available

Using intermolecular interactions to crosslink PIM-1 and modify its gas sorption properties

T. O. McDonald, R. Akhtar, C. H. Lau, T. Ratvijitvech, G. Cheng, R. Clowes, D. J. Adams, T. Hasell and A. I. Cooper, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2015, 3, 4855 DOI: 10.1039/C4TA06070A

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