Green Techniques for Rapid Fabrication of Unprecedentedly High-Performance PEO Membranes for CO2 Capture

Excessive CO2 emissions arising from fossil energy utilization pose severe threats to the environment, climate, and biological species. To this end, high-efficiency separation membranes have been developed to mitigate emerging challenges. Bisphenol A ethoxylate diacrylate (BPA) and poly(ethylene glycol) methyl ether acrylate (PEGMEA) were UV-cross-linked in the presence of low molecular weight poly(ethylene glycol) dimethyl ether (PEGDME) to prepare high-performance CO2 capture membranes in a green way. During the entire membrane fabrication process, no additional solvent was involved and no waste of membrane materials occurred, resulting in a green process. The such-prepared membrane presents an outstanding CO2 permeability of 4883 Barrer, a new record for poly(ethylene oxide) membranes, with a high CO2/N-2 ideal selectivity of 43 due to the cooperative contribution of BPA and PEGDME. The unprecedented separation performance of our manufactured membrane is even higher than that of the 2019 CO2/N-2 upper bound. Considering the rapid, cost-effective, and green fabrication process, our membrane potentially offers a dramatic advantage in alleviating the current greenhouse gas issue and shows great promise for practical applications.