Gamma Irradiation of Cellulose Acetate-Polyethylene Glycol 400 Composite Membrane and Its Performance Test for Gas Separation

Gas separation processes through membrane permeation have attracted the attention of researchers recently because of their promising applications. This study modified the cellulose acetate (CA) membrane to improve membrane performance for CO2/CH4 gas separation. The CA membrane was modified by adding polyethylene glycol (PEG) 400 as the carrier and N, N’-methylene bisacrylamide (MBA) as the cross-linking agent. Gamma-ray from cobalt 60 was used as a reaction initiator with the variation of irradiation dose. The membrane characterization tests were conducted using scanning electron micrograph (SEM), Fourier transforms infrared (FTIR), and tensile strength. The permeability and selectivity of membranes were tested against single gases CO2 and CH4. SEM analysis presented the morphology change of membrane surface by gamma irradiation and a crosslinking agent. The spectra of FTIR show a change in peak intensity on several polymer functional groups in the presence of gamma-ray irradiation. The tensile strength test shows that membranes with MBA have higher mechanical strength than those without MBA. Based on membrane permeability and selectivity tests, the CO2 gas permeability was affected by pressure. The ideal selectivity of CO2/CH4 shows that the irradiated membrane has a higher selectivity than that of the non-irradiated membrane