Experimental Determination of the Gas Transport Characteristics of Polysulfone and Poly(phenylene oxide) Hollow Fiber Membranes in Relation to Noble Gases

Commercially available hollow fiber membranes made of two polymers, namely, polysulfone and poly(phenylene oxide), are studied experimentally. The main task of this study is to estimate the gas transport characteristics of these membranes in relation to air components and noble gases. Therefore, the values of permeability of the membranes for nitrogen, oxygen, helium, argon, xenon and krypton are measured. Particular attention is paid to the xenon-containing air mixture, since the capture of medical xenon is an urgent chemical and technological problem due to a high cost of the process of obtaining this gas. The values of permeability of the two membranes for individual gases are determined, and the values of ideal selectivity are calculated. For example, the values of membrane permeability for argon, krypton, and xenon are 20.8, 8.4, and 6.8 GPU for the polysulfone membrane and 19.5, 6.2, and 4.8 GPU for the poly(phenylene oxide) membrane, respectively. It is found that the xenon permeability of these membranes in the case of separation of the gas mixture composed of nitrogen, oxygen, and xenon is 5.9 and 4.1 GPU for polysulfone and poly(phenylene oxide). It is also shown that the performance of membrane modules based on polysulfone and poly(phenylene oxide) depends on the total membrane area.