CuO Modified by 7,7,8,8-Tetracyanoquinodimethane and Its Application to CO Separation.

7,7,8,8-Tetracyanoquinomethane (TCNQ) was added to polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP)/CuO composites to modify and prevent agglomeration of the particles, and thus the CuO particles were well dispersed to a small size, thereby increasing CO solubility and separation performance. When the separation performance of the PVP/CuO/TCNQ composite membrane was measured for CO/N gases, a CO separation of about 174 was measured. This improvement in performance was attributed to the fact that TCNQ was applied to PVP and CuO to prevent agglomeration between particles with surface modification. Due to TCNQ, CuO could be dispersed to a small size in PVP; the bonds between chains in PVP weakened; the interaction between molecules weakened; and the free volume increased, as confirmed by FT-IR, TGA, and UV-Vis spectroscopy.