About the Talk 

Membranes offer an efficient and cost-effective method for separating CO₂ from flue gases and industrial emissions. Nonetheless, current membranes are subjected to the permeance-selectivity tradeoff which lowers the economical values of the process. 

Membrane permeance is governed by the intrinsic permeability of the material and the thickness of the selective layer. In this presentation, we will introduce our efforts in advancing asymmetric membranes for carbon capture that overcome the permeance-selectivity tradeoff by addressing the challenges of both materials and thin film coating. To enhance the intrinsic separation performances of the polymers, microporous polymers were prepared; Strategies to control their pore size and enhance their porosity will be discussed. To enable the coating of an ultrathin layer onto the support, different coating techniques were used; and polymers with unique chemistry that addresses interfacial tension were synthesized. 

About the speaker:

Associate Professor Zhang Sui is currently an Associate Professor at the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at National University of Singapore (NUS). She received her Bachelor degree from Fudan University in 2008, and her PhD degree from NUS in 2012. After that, she worked as postdoc researcher at NUS and MIT until 2017. She is leading the Advanced Membrane Lab, with > 90 journal publications including Science Advances, Nature Communications, PNAS, Advanced Materials, etc. She is now the editor for Desalination and Water Treatment, and Editorial Board Member for journals such as npj Clean Water, Journal of Membrane Science (early career) and Advanced Membranes. She has received a number of awards in recent years such as 2022 Journal of Material Chemistry A Emerging Investigator Award, 2022 Energy and Fuels Rising Start Award, 2022 NUS Engineering Young Researcher Award and 2021 AIChE SLS Outstanding Young Faculty Award.