Polyimide polydimethylsiloxane triblock copolymers for thin film composite gas separation membranes

Abstract

This article demonstrates the successful fabrication of thin-film-composite (TFC) membranes containing welldefined soft-hard-soft triblock copolymers. Based on "hard" polyimide (PI) and "soft" polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), these triblock copolymers (PDMS-b-PI-b-PDMS), were prepared via condensation polymerization, and end-group allylic functionalization to prepare the polyimide component and subsequent "click" coupling with the soft azido functionalized PDMS component. The selective layer consisted of pure PDMS-b-PI-b- PDMS copolymers which were cast onto a precast crosslinked- PDMS gutter layer which in turn was cast onto a porous polyacrylonitrile coated substrate. The TFC membranes' gas tr..