Synthesis and Characterization of a New Amino Chitosan Derivative for Facilitated Transport of CO2 Through Thin Film Composite Membranes

Industrial polymeric membranes suffer from low CO2 permeability as well as low gas pair selectivity. The presence of a suitable carrier in polymer matrix that can react reversibly with CO2 can enhance the CO2 permeability and CO2-selective properties of polymeric membranes. The abundant amino groups of chitosan make it a good candidate for a CO2 carrier. In this research, a new water-soluble amino derivative of chitosan was synthesized and characterized using FTIR, 1H NMR, and elemntal analysis. The synthesised chitosan derivative was blended with polyvinyl alchol and used to prepare thin film composite (TFC) membranes for facilitated transport of CO2 from a CO2/CH4 gas mixture. The effect of feed pressure, feed temperature and chitosan derivative content on the CO2 permeance, CH4 permeance and the CO2/CH4 selectivtiy of the prepared membranes were investigated. The new TFC membranes possessed acceptable CO2 permeance and CO2/CH4 selectivity.