ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Membr. Sci. Technol.
Sec. Membrane Formation and Structure
Volume 4 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/frmst.2025.1653220
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvancing Sustainability: Membrane Solutions in the Circular EconomyView all 4 articles
Polyethylene Oxide Rubbery Organic Framework (ROF) Membranes with Enhanced CO2 Permeability and CO2/CH4 Selectivity
Provisionally accepted
- 1Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, Helwan University, Cairo, Egypt
- 2Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal
- 3Istituto per la Tecnologia delle Membrane Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Rende, Italy
- 4UMR5635 Institut Européen des Membranes (IEM), Montpellier, France
- 5Institut Europeen des Membranes Cluster Nano-systemes Supramoleculaires Adaptatifs, Montpellier, France
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Rubbery organic frameworks (ROFs), assembled via reversible covalent bonds under dynamic molecular control, represent a promising class of adaptive polymers for gas separation membranes. The elastomeric ROF membranes exhibit excellent mechanical stability, dynamic responsiveness, and intrinsic microporosity. Their affinity toward carbon dioxide (CO2) enables both high CO2 permeability and enhanced selectivity compared to conventional glassy polymeric membranes. One effective strategy to improve CO2 separation performance is the incorporation of polyethylene oxide (PEO) units into the ROF structure. Owing to the high CO2 solubility and electrostatic interactions with PEO segments, this approach can significantly boost CO2 selectivity over other gases such as methane (CH4). In this study, a new class of PEO-based ROF membranes was developed and tailored by varying the length of PEO segments to optimize both mechanical strength and CO2/CH4 separation performance. The membranes were systematically characterized to understand the relationship between their molecular architecture, morphology, and gas transport properties. The resulting ROF membranes demonstrated CO2 permeabilities ranging from 155 to 180 Barrer and CO2/CH4 selectivities between 15 and 31. Notably, a synergistic enhancement in both CO2 permeability and selectivity was observed with increasing PEO segment length. This improvement is attributed to a favorable balance of polymer chain packing, diffusivity, and CO2 affinity within the membrane matrix. These findings highlight the potential of PEO-integrated ROFs as versatile and high-performance materials for advanced gas separation applications.
Keywords: Rubbery organic frameworks (ROFs), Dynameric Membranes, CO2/CH4 separation, polyethylene oxide, Membranes
Received: 24 Jun 2025; Accepted: 22 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yahia, Neves, Giorno, Crespo and Barboiu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Mihail Barboiu, UMR5635 Institut Européen des Membranes (IEM), Montpellier, France
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