Sunho Choi1, Joaquin Coronas2, Edgar Jordan3, Weontae Oh4, Sankar Nair5, Frank Onorato6, Daniel F. Shantz3, and Michael Tsapatsis1. (1) Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Minnesota, 151 Amundson Hall, 421 Washington Avenue SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455-0132, (2) Chemical and Environmental Engineering Department, University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, 50018, Spain, (3) Department of Chemical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, (4) Nanotechnology Department, Dong-Eui University, Busan, 614-714, South Korea, (5) School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 311 Ferst Drive NW, Atlanta, GA 30332-0100, (6) Pall Corporation, 2200 Northern Blvd, East Hills, NY 11548
AMH-3 is a nanoporous layered material with unique three-dimensional porosity within the layer built of eight-membered rings. The swollen derivative of AMH-3 was prepared by a novel procedure that includes the sequential intercalation of organic surfactant following proton exchange. The increase of basal spacing, corresponding to the bilayer configuration of surfactant, allows the swollen AMH-3 to be incorporated and well-dispersed in polymer matrix. Nano-scale particles of exfoliated layers were used as a selective phase in nanocomposite membranes for gas separation. The hydrogen/carbon dioxide ideal selectivity of the nanocomposite membranes was improved by a factor of two compared to that of the pure polymer. Considering the morphology and the alignment of nanoparticles used in this study, as revealed by TEM and SAXS, the performance of these membranes has the potential to be improved further.