Influence of Functionalized Magnetic Particles on O2/N2 Separation Performance of Polysulfone (Psf) Membranes

In this research, novel magnetic mixed matrix membranes (mmms) are developed using polysulfone (psf) as the main matrix consisting of functionalized carbonyl iron powders (fcips) as the magnetic particles for oxygen/nitrogen separation# the surface functionalization of carbonyl iron powders (cips) are carried out by using aminopropyltrimethoxysilane (aptes) to enable well dispersion of particles in the polymer matrix# in order to create magnetic channels across the mmms, the membrane preparation is conducted under an external magnetic field (mf)# the effects of fcip content on the gas separation (o2 and n2) performance of the mmms were evaluated using laboratory-scale gas separation apparatus# the magnetic mmms showed higher o2 permeability due to formation of straight through pass for gas molecules as compared with the neat psf membrane# furthermore, the results showed that mmms containing different amount of functionalized cip exhibited different separation performances# for example, in mmms containing 10 wt% fcip, the permeability of o2 and n2 increased up to 3#6 and 1#45 barrer respectively#