Some approaches for high performance polymer based membranes for gas separation: block copolymers, carbon molecular sieves and mixed matrix membranes

The intrinsic characteristics of a membrane process, i.e. efficiency and operational simplicity, high selectivity and permeability for the transport of specific components, compatibility between different membrane operations in integrated systems, low energetic requirements, easy control and scale-up, and high operational flexibility, might be decisive factors in imposing membrane processes in most gas separation fields. This review highlights the research hardware in membrane gas separation, i.e. the membrane material. Emphasis has been devoted to three interesting and important membrane classes for gas separation: block copolymer membranes, carbon membranes and mixed matrix membranes