ABSTRACT: Membrane technology has emerged as an important separation process for H2 purification, CO2 capture, and water purification. Conventional membrane material designs are often focused on rigid polymers with strong size sieving ability to enhance diffusivity selectivity. In contrast, our research focuses on the exploration of specific interactions between the penetrant and membrane materials to achieve high solubility selectivity and thus high separation performance. In this presentation, I will describe the design of mixed matrix materials (MMMs) containing palladium (Pd) nanoparticles, which have a strong affinity towards H2 and thus extremely high H2/CO2 solubility selectivity at 50 - 200 oC. The increase of Pd loading in polymers can increase the H2/CO2 selectivity by as much as 250%. I will also describe a surface modification of ultrafiltration membranes for wastewater treatment via facile grafting of light-responsive azobenzene using bio-adhesive dopamine. The grafted azobenzene exhibits self-cleaning behavior after exposure to alternative UV and visible light, mitigating the membrane fouling. The structure/property relationship in these materials will be elucidated in this talk.
Bio-sketch: Dr. Haiqing Lin received his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Texas, Austin in 2005. His academic work targeted the development of poly(ethylene oxide) based materials for membrane CO2 removal from mixtures with H2. He joined Membrane Technology and Research, Inc. (MTR) as a Senior Research Scientist and Group Leader of the Gas Separations Group. Dr. Lin led projects on natural gas clean-up and CO2/H2 separation membranes, including commercial development of MTR’s Polaris™ membranes. He is currently an Assistant Professor at the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at University at Buffalo (UB). His current research is focused on advanced membranes for gas separation and water purification. He is a recipient of NSF CAREER award in 2016, and the Early Career Researcher of the Year at School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) at UB in 2016.