University of Queensland’s Academician Suresh K. Bhatia visits CQU and delivers a special report
On the morning of October 10, 2019, upon invitation of Researcher Liu Lang from the School of Energy and Power Engineering, Academician Suresh K. Bhatia from the University of Queensland attended the “Forum on Engineering Science Front of Chongqing University” held as part of the “Academician Anniversary” of the 90th Anniversary of Chongqing University, and delivered an academic report in Room 303 of the School. The report was titled “Structure and Gas Transport at the Polymer-Zeolite Interface: Influence on Performance of Mixed Matrix Membranes”. The Forum was chaired by Researcher Liu Lang, and attended by more than 40 people including Professor Liu Chao, Professor Sun Kuan, Professor Xu Xiaoxiao, Associate Professor Li Qibin from the School of Energy and Power Engineering, Researcher Han Le from the School of Resources and Safety and Liu Lumeng, a teacher from the School of Civil Engineering.
Suresh Bhatia found in his research that the mixed matrix membrane, due to its outstanding separating property, was able to expand the upper limit of Robeson, making it an important material for gas-oil separation. However, successful preparation of high-performance mixed membrane depended on the polymer structure of interface area and gas transportation characteristics. As such, the research of structure of interface area and gas transportation characteristics of mixed membrane played an important role in development of membrane separation technique.
Bhatia pointed out that there was a compact polymer area in the polymer-zeolite interface, with thickness of only 1-2 nm. The gas transportation coefficient at the interface was one order of magnitude slower than that of the bulk polymer. Professor Bhatia further pointed out that the crystal size of zeolite posed a little impact on the structure and gas transportation of the polymer-nano-particle interface. The dynamics and structural transformation of the polymer matrix after gas absorption was taken into consideration through molecular simulation. It was revealed that addition of MFI zeolite into PI would result in increased absorptive selectivity of CO2 for CH4. With the isotherm and transportation characteristics based on molecular dynamics simulation, the research team of Professor Bhatia developed a multi-scale simulation program, which could be used as an important theoretical calculation tool for design equipment of mixed membrane medium.
The report delivered by Professor Bhatia was rich in content and vivid in explanation, and was characterized by remarkable academic achievements and foresight. Students and teachers present were deeply impressed by the content of the report and they reacted with Professor Bhatia actively. After the lecture, Professor Liu Chao from the School of Energy and Power Engineering presented Professor Bhatia with a memorial medal of the Forum, and then they had group photos taken.
