Hypothesis: Membrane contactors are one of the new and effective technologies to reduce the pollution resulting from the emission of carbon dioxide gas (CO₂) in the environment. These equipments are considered a good alternative
to traditional gas absorption methods due to their many advantages. However, despite having important advantages, the wetting of polymer membranes due to contact with liquid absorbents and especially amine solutions is one of the main disadvantages of this equipment
Methods: In order to reduce the wetting problem of membranes, in the present study, pure poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) membranes and mixed matrix membranes containing calcium carbonate nanoparticles and silica nanoparticles, grafted with methyl agent were fabricated by non-solvent induce phase separation method for use in the CO₂ absorption process. In the meantime, the structure and performance of the membranes were investigated using different tests.
Findings: The results showed that the size of the pores increased with the increase in the percentage of nanoparticles in the polymer solution. So that, the membranes containing 2% (by wt) of nanoparticles had larger finger like pores than other membranes. Also despite the increase in the size of the finger like pores, the presence of nanoparticles in the structure of the mixed matrix membranes caused a noticeable improvement in the tensile strength of these membranes compared to the pure PVC membrane. In addition, the contact angle test showed that the mixed matrix membranes have a larger contact angle than the pure PVC membrane. Thus, the membrane containing 1.5% by wt) of CaCO3 nanoparticles and the membrane containing 2% (by wt) of silica nanoparticles grafted with methyl agent had the highest contact angle. In addition the CO2 absorption test indicated that at an absorbent velocity of 250 m/s, the PVC CO₃ mixed matrix membrane exhibited the highest CO2 absorption flux, which was 1.45 × 10^-3 mol/m²s.