Manufacturing of Asymmetric Hollow Fiber Membranes for Gas Separation Made of Poly(2,6-Dimethyl-1,4-Phenylenoxide)

The regularities of manufacturing hollow fiber membranes made of poly(2,6-dimethylphenylene-1,4-oxide) (PPO) for gas separation have been studied. The phase inversion method has been used to manufacture the membranes. The dependence of the separation characteristics of the membrane on such spinning parameters as the type of solvent, the exposure time of the polymer solution in the “air” gap, and the type of non-solvents (coagulants) has been studied. The characteristics of the membrane have been obtained by determining their gas permeability. It is shown that higher separation and gas transport characteristics of the PPO membrane are obtained using the wet spinning method. An intrinsic selectivity of 4.8 ± 0.4 has been obtained at a specific oxygen permeability (20°C) of (P/l) (790 ± 82) × 10^–9 [m³ (STP) m^–2 s^–1 kPa] for oxygen-nitrogen system. The developed membranes are promising for use in case for producing nitrogen and oxygen-enriched air.