Gas Adsorption Using Conjugated Polymers : Studied by Quartz Crystal Microbalance (QCM)

Abstract: Since late 70’s when conductive polymers were discovered, a new field of science has opened to the research world. Especially during last 30 years, many applications of using these polymers have been revealed in areas such as electrochemical transistors and OLEDs (Organic Light Emitting Diodes). In separation sciences, there are some studies using conjugated polymers for isolating analytes in liquid and gas matrices. Considering the results of these recent efforts, there is a potential to use conjugated polymers to separate the gases from each other. However, to the best of my knowledge, such application has not been demonstrated yet. The objective of this thesis is to measure the differences in adsorption of carbon dioxide and methane on conjugated polymers. The adsorption measurements on polymer films were made using Quartz Crystal Microbalance with Dissipation Monitoring. We believe this separation method may be helpful in biogas plants or even for separating carbon dioxide in carbon sequestration projects and green house gas abatement plants.