Graphene oxide gas separation membranes intercalated by UiO-66-NH2 with enhanced hydrogen separation performance

UiO-66-NH 2 were either intercalated into graphene oxide (GO) layers (GOU@S) or covered by GO layers (GO/U@S) to form UiO-66-NH 2 /GO composite membrane . Results show that different synthesis methods would lead to different membrane morphology, thickness and gas separation performance. For GOU@S membrane, UiO-66-NH 2 was well-dispersed and intercalated into GO layer, whereas two continuous layers (GO and UiO-66 layer) with an obvious boundary were observed for GO/U@S. Due to the morphology and structure difference, better hydrogen separation performance was achieved for GOU@S membrane compared to GO/U@S membrane and pristine membrane due to the close interfacial contact between UiO-66-NH 2 and GO, which arises from the hydrogen bonding formed between -NH 2 group in UiO-66-NH 2 and -OH group in GO and the electrostatic force between UiO-66-NH 2 and GO layers. The ideal selectivities of H 2 /N 2 and H 2 /CO 2 were increased to 9.75 and 6.35, respectively, for the GOU@S membrane with a H 2 permeance of 3.9 × 10 −8   mol   m −2   s −1   Pa −1 .