Pristine and thermally-rearranged gas separation membranes from novel o-hydroxyl-functionalized spirobifluorene-based polyimides

Abstract

A novel o-hydroxyl-functionalized spirobifluorene-based diamine monomer, 2,2′-dihydroxyl-9,9′-spirobifluorene-3,3′-diamine (HSBF), was successfully prepared by a universal synthetic method. Two o-hydroxyl-containing polyimides, denoted as 6FDA-HSBF and SPDA-HSBF, were synthesized and characterized. The BET surface areas of 6FDA-HSBF and SPDA-HSBF are 70 and 464 m² g⁻¹, respectively. To date, SPDA-HSBF exhibits the highest CO₂ permeability (568 Barrer) among all hydroxyl-containing polyimides. The HSBF-based polyimides exhibited higher CO₂/CH₄ selectivity than their spirobifluorene (SBF) analogues (42 for 6FDA-HSBF vs. 27 for 6FDA-SBF) due to an increase in their diffusivity selectivity. Polybenzoxazole (PBO) membranes obtained from HSBF-based polyimide precursors by thermal rearrangement showed enhanced permeability but at the cost of significantly decreased selectivity.