Abstract Membrane technology lies at the heart of many industrial gas separation processes and applications. Molecular sieving membranes that break the Robeson limit are desirable for energy-efficient gas separation. Herein, we report a facile strategy of directly integrating ionic liquids (ILs) into porous membranes. Particularly, the ILs form an ultra-thin layer on the carbon molecular sieve (CMS) membranes rather than penetrating into the pores, acting as a smart gate for gas entry to boost the selectivity. The hybrid membrane exhibits CO2 permeability >600 barrer and enhanced CO2/N2 selectivity >50, which surpasses the Robeson limit and shows potential in CO2/N2 separation process. Molecular dynamics simulations confirm the gating effect of the IL layer of molecular thickness. This work demonstrates a universal strategy to improve CMS membrane performance by creating an IL-membrane interface and tuning the ion-pore interaction.

中文翻译：

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离子门控碳分子筛气体分离膜

摘要 膜技术是许多工业气体分离过程和应用的核心。突破 Robeson 极限的分子筛膜是节能气体分离的理想选择。在此，我们报告了一种将离子液体 (IL) 直接整合到多孔膜中的简便策略。特别是，离子液体在碳分子筛 (CMS) 膜上形成超薄层而不是渗透到孔中，充当气体进入的智能门以提高选择性。混合膜表现出 CO2 渗透率 >600 barrer 和增强的 CO2/N2 选择性 >50，超过了 Robeson 极限并显示出在 CO2/N2 分离过程中的潜力。分子动力学模拟证实了分子厚度的 IL 层的门控效应。