Gas‐separation properties of amine‐crosslinked polyimide membranes modified by amine vapor

The modification of a polyimide (PI) membrane by aromatic amine vapor was performed in this work to increase the crosslinking of the membrane and to study the effect on gas permeability and the corresponding selectivity. The single-gas permeability of the membranes at 35 °C was probed for H2, O2, N2, CO2, and CH4. From the relationship between the combinations of gases and ideal permselectivities, this study showed that amine-crosslinked PI membranes tended to increase gas permselectivities exponentially with the increasing difference in gas kinetic diameter. Moreover, this study illustrated that the permeability of the membranes was influenced by the formation rate of amine-crosslinked networks or chemical structures after the reaction. The membranes had the highest level of permselectivities among crosslinked PI membranes for O2/N2, and the H2/CH4 permselectivity increased 26 times after vapor modification. Furthermore, the modification method that used aromatic amine vapor produced thin and strongly modified layers. These findings indicate that modification is an advantageous technique for improving gas-separation performance, even considering thinning. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2017, 134, 44569.