초록 |
Liquid aromatics are important raw materials for various products of industrial interest (e.g. plastics, fibers), which are produced mainly from energy-intensive catalytic reforming and cracking processes. Advanced membrane separation technology combined with precise porosity design of membrane material could significantly enhance energy efficiency. Here, forward osmosis separation in molecular level through carbon membrane with pore matching the size of aromatic species is demonstrated. The rigid and confined ultramicropores in carbon membrane derived from 6FDA–DAM polyimide discriminates benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene isomers (BTEX mixture). Utilization of draw solvent with the size larger than carbon ultramicropores, which generates chemical potential gradient and corresponding driving force for the permeation of feed molecules without back-diffusion, enables direct fractionation of complex BTEX mixture at room temperature without pressurization. |