Study the Membrane of Polyacrylonitrile - Poly Sulfone and the Effect of Aluminum Oxide Nanoparticles for Gas Separation

Membrane systems are widely used due to their many advantages. The membrane is used for gas separation. In this study, improvement of gas separation properties in the alloy membrane of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) and polysulfone (PSF) was studied by adding aluminum oxide nanoparticles. By addition polysulfone to polyacrylonitrile membrane, the best combination of alloy membranes percentage was obtained. Then, a sol-gel method for making Nano-composite membranes was studied. All membranes were prepared using the solvent evaporation method. The ratio of polymers in the mixed matrix was considered at the rate of PAN 100%, PSF 100 %, (PSF 5%- PAN 95%), (PSF 10% -PAN 90%), (PSF 15% -PAN 85%). Aluminum oxide nanoparticles were placed on the membrane with weight percentages of 2.5, 5, 10, 15, and 20. To study the membrane, SEM and FT-IR analyses were used.  By adding aluminum oxide nanoparticles to the membrane at the weight percentage of 10% and measuring the rate of leakage, it was observed that the leakage rate of carbon dioxide, oxygen, nitrogen, and methane gases increased by 146%, 159%,166%%, and 54%, respectively, compared to the membranes without aluminum oxide nanoparticles. Tests showed that the optimal amount of adding aluminum oxide to improve the properties of the membrane is 10% of the weight percentage.