Designing the inner surface corrugations of hollow fibers to enhance CO2 absorption efficiency.

For the first time, a low cost strategy is introduced to enhance the efficiency of CO2 absorption using gas-liquid membrane contactors. This is implemented by designing the corrugations in the inner layer of poly(vinyl chloride) hollow fibers (PVC HFs) through changing the bore fluid composition. In fact, the number of corrugations in the HF inner layer is engineered via changing the phase separation time within the inner layer. Such that expedited phase separation leads to highly corrugated inner layer. In contrast, decelerated phase separation is responsible for reduced number of inner layer corrugations. Phase separation causes the initial polymer solution with low viscoelastic moduli to be transferred into polymer-rich domains with high viscoelastic moduli. These domains resist against stretching-induced radial forces toward the center of HF; therefore, the inner layer of HF buckles. Delayed phase separation defers formation of polymer-rich domains and hence, HF with less corrugated inner surface is expected. The phase separation within the HF inner layer is controlled through changing the rate of solvent/nonsolvent exchange. This is conducted by variation the solvent content in the bore fluid; as higher as solvent content, as slower as solvent/nonsolvent exchange.