Novel Carbon Molecular Sieve Membranes Derived from Poly(phenylene oxide) and Its Derivatives for Gas Separation

We succeeded in fabricating new carbon molecular sieve (CMS) membranes as hollow fibers using poly(phenylene oxide) (PPO) and its functionalized derivatives (R-PPO). Gas transport properties were measured for He, H2, CO2, O2, and N2. PPO CMS membranes exhibited higher performances than those of polymeric precursors. The highest performance was attained by trimethylsilyl-PPO (TMSPPO) CMS membrane pyrolyzed at 923 K, of which O2 permeability was 125 Barrer and O2/N2 permselectivity was 10.0 at 298 K.