Sabatier principle in designing CO2-philic but blocking membranes

LQ Hu and AJ Gottipalli and GY Zhang and K Fung and T Tran and N Esmaeili and PH Zhang and YF Ding and KH Shi and HQ Lin, SCIENCE ADVANCES, 11, eadz2830 (2025).

DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adz2830

Gas transport through polymers follows the sorption-diffusion mechanism, and gas-philic functional groups are often incorporated into polymers to enhance its solubility selectivity and thus separation efficiency. In contrast, we report that polymers exhibiting strong chemisorption toward specific gas molecules can counterintuitively impede their diffusion, illustrated by experimental and simulation studies of CO2 transport in cross-linked polyamines, paralleling the Sabatier principle observed in catalysis. The CO2-philic polyamine membrane attains an unprecedented H2/CO2 selectivity of 1800, making it highly desirable for H2 purification. The cross-linked polyamines exhibit excellent self-healing properties and processability for fabricating thin-film composite membranes, indicating great promise for industrial separations. Retarded transport by introducing strongly binding groups presents a promising route for designing membranes for various separations.

Return to Publications page