Synergistic improvement of CO2/CH4 separation performance of phenolphthalein-based polyimide membranes by thermal decomposition and thermal-oxidative crosslinking

Thermal oxidative crosslinking results in the generation of oxygen bridges among polymer chains and helps regulate the membrane microstructure. Simultaneously, any strategy to increase the crosslinking sites of polyimide (PI) can improve the crosslinking efficiency and allow precise control of the pore structure of membranes. Phenolphthalein-based PIs are potentially suitable precursors for thermal oxidative crosslinking of membranes, since thermal treatment will result in the degradation of lactone ring leading to the generation of a pair of phenyl crosslinking sites. In this work, three phenolphthalein-based diamines with different structures were designed and synthesized. The three diamines were subsequently reacted with 3,3′,4,4′-benzophenone tetracarboxylic dianhydride (BTDA) to prepare phenolphthalein-based PIs. The original membranes were post-treated by thermal oxidation crosslinking at 400 °C and 425 °C, respectively; the lactone ring underwent decomposition, and the imide ring opened at the same time, resulting in the generation of multiple crosslinking sites and correspondingly improving the crosslinking efficiency. The effect of the side groups (−CH 3 , –CF 3 or unsubstituted) of phenolphthalein-based diamine and thermal treatment temperatures on the gas separation performance of phenolphthalein-based PI membranes were investigated. Wide-angle X-ray diffractometry (WAXD) and wide-angle X-ray scattering (WAXS) analysis demonstrated that the π-π stacking distance were improved. BTDA-FPP-425 had a CO 2 /CH 4 selectivity of 37.68. This thermal degradation along with thermal oxidative crosslinking strategy provides a promising approach for fabrication of CO 2 /CH 4 separation membrane .