Surfactant-Assisted on-Acid Interfacial Polymerization of Porous Polymer Membranes for Organic Solvent Nanofiltration

用于有机溶剂纳滤的表面活性剂辅助多孔聚合物膜的酸性界面聚合

• 批准号: 2300453
• 负责人: Lei Fang
• 金额: $ 36.66万
• 依托单位: Texas A&M University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-07-15 至 2026-06-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2300453&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Surfactant; Assisted; Acid; Interfacial; Polymerization

The industrial processes used to manufacture fuels and chemicals often include many energy-intensive separation steps to recover valuable products from the output streams. Current estimates of the energy required to perform these industrial separations range from 10 to 15% of total domestic energy consumption. Replacing conventional separation technologies like distillation with membrane-based filtration processes will reduce industrial energy demand and improve the sustainability of fuel and chemical purification processes. However, relatively few membranes can withstand exposure to harsh organic solutions and high operating temperatures. Existing methods for fabricating polymeric membrane materials have limited ability to produce the types of chemical structures and materials properties needed for organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN) applications. This project will explore a novel strategy to fabricate robust polymer membranes that can be used to reduce the carbon footprint of some of today’s most important and challenging industrial processes, including separating mixtures of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes (BTEX) and hydrocarbon fractionations. The project will provide opportunities to share the scientific concepts of membrane filtration with members of the College Station, TX, community through the university’s “Chemistry Open House” event. The investigator will also organize a four-day summer camp for regional high school students, where they will learn about the fundamental chemistry and physics of membrane materials. The central project goal is to develop a new strategy to fabricate crosslinked polymer membranes on nonaqueous acid interfaces. This goal will be achieved by elucidating the fundamental mechanism of the surfactant-assisted on-acid interfacial polymerization (SAAIP) reaction, and by addressing the technical challenges associated with fabricating high-quality membranes on nonaqueous acid interfaces. The research plan is motivated by the hypothesis that self-assembled surfactants on an acid interface can promote interfacial polymerization by enhancing local monomer concentration near the interface via electrostatic interactions. This hypothesis will be tested over three research objectives: (1) elucidating the electrostatic interaction-centered mechanism of SAAIP by varying key factors such as acidity, surface tension, self-assembly, and electrostatic interaction; (2) tailoring the kinetics and autonomously optimizing the reaction conditions for SAAIP to access defect-free, ultrathin membranes possessing the desired properties for nanofiltration applications; and (3) demonstrating the SAAIP-enabled unconventional nanofiltration performance for BTEX separation and petroleum fractionation. Successfully developing this on-acid interfacial polymerization strategy will expand the available chemical space for interfacial membrane synthesis beyond the current state-of-the-art aqueous interfacial reactions. As a result, membrane materials with new functionalities, enhanced stability, and the precise molecular selectivity required for OSN will be made possible. This project is supported by the Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems’s Interfacial Engineering program and the Division of Materials Research’s Polymers program.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

用于生产燃料和化学物质的工业过程通常包括许多能源密集型分离步骤，以从输出流中回收有价值的产品。当前对执行这些工业分离所需能源的估计范围从国内总能源消耗的10％到15％。用基于膜的过滤过程替换传统的分离技术，例如蒸馏，将减少工业能源需求并改善燃料和化学纯化过程的可持续性。但是，相对较少的机制可以承受暴露于有害的有机溶液和高度工作温度的情况。现有的制造聚合物膜材料的方法具有有限的有机溶液纳米过滤（OSN）应用所需的化学结构和材料特性的能力。该项目将探讨一种制造可靠的聚合物膜的新型策略，该策略可用于减少当今一些最重要和挑战工业过程的碳足迹，包括分离苯，甲苯，乙烯，乙烯苯和二甲苯和二甲苯（BTEX）和碳苯基分数的混合物。该项目将通过大学的“化学开放日”活动提供机会，与德克萨斯州大学站的成员分享膜过滤的科学概念。研究人员还将为区域高中学生组织一个为期四天的夏令营，在那里他们将了解膜材料的基本化学和物理学。中心项目的目标是制定一种新的策略，以在非水酸界面上构建交联聚合物膜。该目标将通过阐明基本辅助界面界面聚合（SAAIP）反应的基本机制，并通过解决与非水酸界面上的高质量膜相关的技术挑战。该研究计划是由以下假设激发的，即酸界面上的自组装表面每次表面表面可以通过静电相互作用来增强界面附近的局部单体化来促进界面聚合。该假设将在三个研究目标上进行检验：（1）通过不同的关键因素，例如酸度，表面张力，自我组装和静电相互作用来阐明以静电相互作用为中心的机制； （2）调整动力学并自主优化SAAIP的反应条件，以获取具有纳米滤过应用所需特性的无缺陷的超薄膜； （3）证明了BTEX分离和石油分馏的非常规纳米过滤性能。成功地开发这种对种族界面的聚合策略将扩大可用的化学空间，以超越当前最新水性界面反应。结果，将使具有新功能，增强稳定性以及OSN所需的精确分子选择性的膜材料成为可能。该项目得到了化学，生物工程，环境和运输系统的界面工程计划和材料研究部的聚合物计划的支持。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并通过使用基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响来评估NSF的法定任务。