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

McDonald, T. O., Akhtar, R., Lau, C. H., Ratvijitvech, T., Cheng, G., Clowes, R., Adams, D. J. , Hasell, T. and Cooper, A. I. (2015) Using intermolecular interactions to crosslink PIM-1 and modify its gas sorption properties. Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 3(9), pp. 4855-4864. (doi: 10.1039/C4TA06070A)

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.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: The authors gratefully acknowledge the EPSRC for funding (EP/ H000925/1). In addition, they would like to thank the Centre of Materials Discovery for access to equipment and technical support, especially Dr Sean Higgins for performing GPC analysis. C. H. Lau acknowledges the support from the Science and Industry Endowment Fund, Australia. T. Ratvijitvech thanks Mahidol University, Thailand for Funding.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Adams, Dave
• Authors: McDonald, T. O., Akhtar, R., Lau, C. H., Ratvijitvech, T., Cheng, G., Clowes, R., Adams, D. J., Hasell, T., and Cooper, A. I.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Chemistry
• Journal Name: Journal of Materials Chemistry A
• Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry
• ISSN: 2050-7488
• ISSN (Online): 2050-7496
• Published Online: 26 January 2015
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2015 The Royal Society of Chemistry
• First Published: First published in Journal of Materials Chemistry A 3(9): 4855-4864)
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Crerative Commons license