There have been continuous research activities towards the designing of various separation technologies for the sequestration of CO2. Organic polymer membranes pay a great attention for its eco-friendliness, simple operation and energy-saving. Polymer membranes such as polyimides, polyethers, TRs and PIMs are well known for their high permeability and excellent mechanical, chemical, and thermal properties. However, the foremost challenge for these polymeric membrane materials is their enhanced selectivity to CO2 without sacrificing permeability. The selectivity problems would be overcome by ionic liquids (ILs), which lead to a considerable attention on RTILs-based sequestrations for CO2/N2 and CO2/CH4 separations. The current research trends based on RTIL polymer membranes, together with our original concept of applying RTIL to various polymeric structures will be presented.

A simple method for generating pores in a cellulose acetate (CA) polymer matrix was developed using a combination of an ionic liquid and water pressure treatment. A porous CA membrane was successfully prepared using the ionic liquid (BMIM-BF4) and subsequent water pressure treatment. Pores were generated in the CA polymer matrix when the CA/ionic liquid composite was subjected to water pressure. The characteristics of the thus-generated porous membrane were evaluated using porosimetry. FT-IR and Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) showed that when the CA polymer was subjected to water pressure, most of the BMIM-BF4 incorporated in the polymer during its preparation was removed, thereby generating the observed pores. In addition, it was observed that the flux varied with water pressure, indicating that the pore size was controllable.

A novel poly (ethylene glycol)-imidazolium-functionalized 6FDA-durene polyimides (PEG-Im-PIs) with various PEG chain lengths and PEG-IM contents have been developed as novel polymer membranes for high performance CO2-separation. The synthesis, characterization of these materials, together with the properties of the corresponding polymer membranes, including gas separation properties, will be discussed in detail.

이 논문은 온도차에 따라 변화되는 이온성 액체와 낮은 밴드갭을 갖는 고분자인 poly(2-heptadecyl-4-vinylthieno[3,4-d]thiazole)(PHVTT) 간의 상호작용 및 고분자 의 거동을 조사하 였다. 이온성 액체는 methyl imidazolium chloride([MIM]Cl), butyl methyl imidazolium chloride([BMIM]Cl), tri-butyl methyl ammonium methyl sulfate([TBMA][ MeSO4])를 사용하였으며, 21, 28, 32, 37℃로 온도를 변화시키며 상호작용의 변화를 UV-vis spectroscopy, FT-IR spectroscopy, photoluminescence spectroscopy를 통해 확인한 결과 이온성 액체인 [MIM]Cl, [TBMA][MeSO4]와 PHVTT의 상호작용은 점차 약해짐을 확인할 수 있었지만, [BMIM]Cl은 온도 변화에 따른 상호작용의 변화를 보이지 않았다.

Use of low bandgap polymers is the most suitable way to harvest a broader spectrum of solar radiations for solar cells. But, still there is lack of most efficient low bandgap polymer. In order to solve this problem, we have synthesised a new low bandgap polymer and investigated its interaction with the ILs to enhance its conductivity. ILs may undergo almost unlimited structural variations; these structural variations have attracted extensive attention in polymer studies. In addition to this, UV-Vis spectroscopy, confocal Raman spectroscopy and FT-IR spectroscopy results have revealed that all studied ILs (tributylmethylammonium methyl sulfate [N1444] MeSO4] from ammonium family) and 1-methylimidazolium chloride ([MIM]Cl, and 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride [Bmim]Cl from imidazolium family) has potential to interact with polymer. Further, protic ILs shows enhanced conductivity than aprotic ILs with low bandgap polymer. This study provides the combined effect of low bandgap polymer and ILs that may generate many theoretical and experimental opportunities.