Research Article Open Access Volume 2 • Issue 3 • 1000e110 J Membra Sci Technol ISSN:2155-9589 JMST an open access journal Open Access Editorial Ahmad et al., J Memb Sci Technol 2012, 2:3 DOI: 10.4172/2155-9589.1000e110 One of the major issues haunting environmentalist in both developed and developing countries was the control of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions [1]. Te development of low-emission fossil fuel technologies combined with the carbon capture and storage (CCS) system has been proposed to reduce the adversities of climate change caused by the emission of greenhouse gases particularly CO 2 . Gas separation in this process could be accomplished by either chemical solvent technology or membrane technology. In spite of its popularity, the chemical solvent technology has certain limitations such as expensive operational cost, high heat reaction with CO 2 , and corrosive nature of some solvents [2]. In contrast, gas separation using membrane technology provides good benefts such as energy efciency, utilization of non-toxic chemical, and simple operating procedure that makes it extremely attractive for CO 2 capture [3]. In terms of energy requirements, membrane technology was comparable for the adsorption of fue gases containing 20% or more of CO 2 [4]. Numerous studies have shown the economical benefts of membrane based separation system for a high concentration of CO 2 [5]. In fact, the polymeric membranes have several limitations for gas separation such as low selectivity, high temperature instability, swelling and decomposition in organic solvents [6]. Tese limitations have led to the development of alternative membrane materials (inorganic membrane) that are synthesized from metal, ceramics or pyrolyzed carbon. Although the properties of some inorganic materials are well above the trade-of curve for polymers, it is challenging to duplicate the enlarge-scale modules containing thousands of square meters of membrane areas due to the expensive of the capital cost. In addition, the brittleness and low surface-to-ratio volume of inorganic membrane are also the challenges to fully optimize its applications for gas separation industries [7]. Te improvement of membrane separation properties can be achieved by the development of mixed matrix membrane (MMM). Te MMMs are recently getting much attention as an attractive candidate for membrane-based separation [8], where it has a bright future as an alternative to conventional polymeric and inorganic membranes. Te incorporation of inorganic components such as zeolite, carbon molecular sieves, and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) into the polymer matrix enable MMM to have the potential to achieve higher selectivity and/or permeability relative to existing polymeric membranes [8-11], as illustrated in Figure 1. MMM is expected to have a good adhesion properties between organic-inorganic composite [12], improved gas separation performance with the thin selective layer [13] and enhanced the mechanical properties of conventional polymeric matrix [7,14]. In the other words, the MMMs possess promising properties compared to the polymeric and inorganic membranes, as some of the properties are briefy summarized in Table 1 [8]. Te MMM have the potential to improve the gas separation properties at elevated temperatures and pressures, which attributed by its high separation capabilities (inorganic fllers) and economical processing materials (polymeric membrane). However, the existing polymeric membrane materials are not been fully exploit to inadequate comprehensive research in material science and engineering. Te *Corresponding author: A. L. Ahmad, School of Chemical Engineering, Engineering Campus, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 14300 Nibong Tebal, Penang, Malaysia, Tel: +(604) 5996499; Fax: +(604) 5941013; E-mail: chlatif@eng.usm.my Received August 29, 2012; Accepted August 29, 2012; Published September 05, 2012 Citation: Ahmad AL, Jawad ZA, Low SC, Zein SHS (2012) Prospect of Mixed Matrix Membrane towards CO 2 Separation. J Memb Sci Technol 2:e110. doi:10.4172/2155-9589.1000e110 Copyright: © 2012 Ahmad AL, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Prospect of Mixed Matrix Membrane towards CO 2 Separation A. L. Ahmad 1 *, Z. A. Jawad 1,2 , S. C. Low 1 and S. H. S. Zein 1 1 School of Chemical Engineering, Engineering Campus, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 14300 Nibong Tebal, Penang, Malaysia 2 Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials Research Center, University of Technology, Baghdad, Iraq enhancement in permeability is at the expense of selectivity, and vice versa. In this regards, future prospects should be focused on the combination of the both polymeric and inorganic materials in order to tailor the high separation permeability and selectivity needed for many high-energy industrial. New MMM developed from cellulose acetate (CA) polymer with good toughness, high biocompatibility as well as high hydrophilic properties posses a great potential to perform Properties Polymeric Membrane Inorganic Membrane MMM i. Cost Economical to fabricate High Fabrication cost Moderate ii. Chemical and thermal stability Moderate High High iii. Mechanical strength Good Poor Excellent iv. Compatibility to solvent Limited Wide range Limited v. Swelling Frequently occurs Free of swelling Free of swelling vi. Separation performance Moderate Moderate Exceed Robeson upper boundary vii. Handling Robust Brittle Robust Table 1: Comparison of the properties for polymeric, inorganic and MMM [8]. (a) (b) Dense structure Inorganic fillers Supported layer Dense skin Figure 1: MMMs in confguration: (a) symmetric fat dense, and (b) Asymmetric hollow fber [7]. Journal of Membrane Science & Technology J o u r n a l o f M e m b r a n e S c i e n c e & T e c h n o l o g y ISSN: 2155-9589