Interactions of Ag Particles Stabilized by 7,7,8,8-Tetracyanoquinodimethane with Olefin Molecules in Poly(ether-block-amide)

Abstract

In this study, to use a stabilized carrier, silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) were used as carriers and electron acceptors were added to activate the surface of AgNPs as olefin carriers. In addition, poly(ether-block-amide) (PEBAX), consisting of polyamide (hard segments) and polyether (soft segments), was investigated for the correlation of the between-segments ratio related to the stability of AgNPs and separation performance. As a result, contrary to the expectation that high permeance would be observed in PEBAX-1657/AgNPs/7,7,8,8-tetracyanoquinodimethane (TCNQ) membrane, which had a higher ratio of polyether soft segment, the PEBAX-5513/AgNPs/TCNQ membrane, which had a relatively high proportion of polyamide, showed a higher permeance without difference in selectivity. These unexpected data were attributable to the fact that the relatively abundant amount of PA groups in PEBAX-5513 was able to stabilize and positively polarize the surface of AgNPs, resulting in the stabilized and high performance of olefin separation.