Researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have developed a new highly permeable, potentially more efficient, carbon capture membrane, the California facility announced last week. The new membrane is a hybrid – part polymer and part metal-organic –framework. A lab press release says the new membrane is eight times more carbon dioxide-permeable than membranes composed only of the polymer.
The hybrid approach creates two routes for carbon molecules to take though the membrane. Molecules can travel through the polymer component of the membrane, or they can flow through “carbon dioxide highways” created by the metal-organic frameworks, according to the release.
“In our membrane, some CO2 molecules get an express ride through the highways formed by metal-organic frameworks, while others take the polymer pathway. This new approach will enable the design of higher performing gas separation membranes,” Norman Su, a graduate student in the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department at the University of California, Berkeley, said in the release.
