Seminars

Polymeric membranes have emerged as an energy-efficient technology for gas separations, and materials with desirable sub-nm free volumes are desirable to achieve superior separation properties. Furthermore, these materials must be fabricated into nanofilm composite (NFC) membranes of < 100 nm using roll-to-roll processes, while the nanofilm properties can significantly deviate from their bulk properties. I will discuss two approaches to designing and fabricating such nanomembranes. First, NFC membranes based on polyethers and metal-organic framework (MOF) nanoparticles with strong affinity are fabricated for CO₂/N₂ separation for postcombustion carbon capture. Increasing the MOF loading unexpectedly decreases CO₂ permeability in freestanding films, but it surprisingly yields the best CO₂/N₂ separation properties at 10 mass% in NFC membranes, superior to the state-of-the-art commercial membranes. Second, polysiloxane-based membranes can be sequentially treated with oxygen plasma and atomic layer deposition (ALD), producing a few-nm amorphous zeolite layer with superior H₂/CO₂ separation properties for hydrogen purification. The correlation of manufacturing, nanostructures, and separation properties will also be elucidated to highlight nanoscale behaviors and their importance in designing practical membranes.

Dr. Haiqing Lin is a professor of the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering of the University at Buffalo, State University of New York. His research elucidates the relationships between chemical and nano-structures and the properties of polymeric membranes for gas, liquid, and ion separations, with the end goal of addressing key challenges in energy and sustainability. He earned his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 2005 and then joined Membrane Technology and Research, Inc. (MTR) as a Senior Research Scientist. He led the successful development of Polaris^TM membranes for CO₂ removal from syngas. In 2013, he began his career at the University at Buffalo as an assistant professor and was promoted to professor in 2021.

Dr. Lin has published more than 170 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, and he is a co-inventor of 10 US patents and patent applications. He was a recipient of the 2016 NSF CAREER award and the 2025 AIChE Institute Award for Excellence in Industrial Gases Technology.