Abstract
Replacement or debottlenecking of the extremely energy-intensive cryogenic distillation technology for the separation of ethylene from ethane has been a long-standing challenge. Membrane technology could be a desirable alternative with potentially lower energy consumption. However, the current key obstacle for industrial implementation of membrane technology is the low mixed-gas selectivity of polymeric, inorganic or hybrid membrane materials, arising from the similar sizes of ethylene (3.75 Å) and ethane (3.85 Å). Here we report precise molecular sieving and plasticization-resistant carbon membranes made by pyrolysing a shape-persistent three-dimensional triptycene-based ladder polymer of intrinsic microporosity with unparalleled mixed-gas performance for ethylene/ethane separation, with a selectivity of ~100 at 10 bar feed pressure, and with long-term continuous stability for 30 days demonstrated. These submicroporous carbon membranes offer opportunities for membrane technology in a wide range of notoriously difficult separation applications in the petrochemical and natural gas industry.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 1218-1226 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | NATURE MATERIALS |
Volume | 22 |
Issue number | 10 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Oct 2023 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Chemistry
- General Materials Science
- Condensed Matter Physics
- Mechanics of Materials
- Mechanical Engineering