Defect-free PEO membrane fabrication by hydrogen bonding coupling thermal annealing for carbon capture

Reduction of CO2 emission is an urgent global demand to deal with the current extreme climate and ecosystem destruction. Polyethylene oxide (PEO) is an ideal material for CO2 separation membranes, because of its mod-erate affinity for CO2. However, due to its high tendency of crystallization, the mass transfer of CO2 is significantly hampered, resulting in poor separation performance. This study proposed of employment of trehalose as the filler to PEO membrane with subsequent thermal annealing, that is hydrogen-bond suppression crystalliza-tion coupling thermal annealing healing defects strategy, to simultaneously enhance the gas transport and selectivity. The trehalose plays the role of suppressing PEO crystallization while thermal annealing charges for healing defects. Consequently, the optimized trehalose-loaded PEO membrane exhibits a CO2 permeability of 117 Barrer and an ideal CO2/N2 selectivity of 51, which is superior to the pure PEO membrane. Moreover, the membrane offers merits of anti-plasticization feature and long-term running stability.