IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v6y2015i1d10.1038_ncomms8529.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Membranes with artificial free-volume for biofuel production

Author

Listed:
  • Nikos Petzetakis

    (University of California)

  • Cara M. Doherty

    (CSIRO Manufacturing Private Bag 10)

  • Aaron W. Thornton

    (CSIRO Manufacturing Private Bag 10)

  • X. Chelsea Chen

    (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)

  • Pepa Cotanda

    (Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)

  • Anita J. Hill

    (CSIRO Manufacturing Private Bag 10)

  • Nitash P. Balsara

    (University of California
    Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
    Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)

Abstract

Free-volume of polymers governs transport of penetrants through polymeric films. Control over free-volume is thus important for the development of better membranes for a wide variety of applications such as gas separations, pharmaceutical purifications and energy storage. To date, methodologies used to create materials with different amounts of free-volume are based primarily on chemical synthesis of new polymers. Here we report a simple methodology for generating free-volume based on the self-assembly of polyethylene-b-polydimethylsiloxane-b-polyethylene triblock copolymers. We have used this method to fabricate a series of membranes with identical compositions but with different amounts of free-volume. We use the term artificial free-volume to refer to the additional free-volume created by self-assembly. The effect of artificial free-volume on selective transport through the membranes was tested using butanol/water and ethanol/water mixtures due to their importance in biofuel production. We found that the introduction of artificial free-volume improves both alcohol permeability and selectivity.

Suggested Citation

  • Nikos Petzetakis & Cara M. Doherty & Aaron W. Thornton & X. Chelsea Chen & Pepa Cotanda & Anita J. Hill & Nitash P. Balsara, 2015. "Membranes with artificial free-volume for biofuel production," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 6(1), pages 1-8, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:6:y:2015:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms8529
    DOI: 10.1038/ncomms8529
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms8529
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/ncomms8529?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:6:y:2015:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms8529. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.