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π-Complexes of silver salts with polystyrene (PS) were prepared and tested in the separation of propylene/propane mixtures. After the incorporation of silver ions into the PS matrix, both the pure propylene gas permeance of the membrane and its olefin selectivity with respect to the propylene/propane mixtures were remarkably higher than those of the pure PS membrane, demonstrating facilitated propylene transport through the solid-state membrane. The remarkable separation performance of the PS/silver salt membranes was attributable to the unusually high solubility of the silver salts in the PS matrix, which was possibly due to the formation of π-complexes between the silver ion and aromatic C&dbond;C bond of PS. The coordination properties and dissolution behavior of the silver salts in PS were investigated with Fourier transform infrared, Fourier transform Raman, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The values for the intersegmental d-spacing, determined by wide-angle X-ray scattering, also showed that significant transient crosslinks arose between the PS chains when the silver salts were added to the PS matrix. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 42: 2263–2269, 2004

The difference between the polymer matrices of poly(2-ethyl-2-oxazoline) (POZ) and poly(N-vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP) does not have a significant effect on the facilitated propylene transport and propylene solubility in 1:1 polymer/silver salt complex membranes, according to our previous work. In this article, its origin is investigated in terms of both microstructures of silver polymer electrolytes and the coordinative interaction of silver ion with polymer and with the counteranion. Initially different microstructures of POZ and PVP become similar to each other upon dissolving a large amount of silver salt, as evidenced by propane transport properties, specific volume, and Bragg d-spacing. The dissolution of the silver salt in the polymer solvent strongly depends on the coordinative interaction between silver ion and carbonyl oxygen of POZ and PVP. Thus, the structural similarity upon dissolving silver salts in POZ and PVP is primarily determined by the coordinative interaction between silver ion and carbonyl oxygen, which was confirmed by theoretical structure calculation based on density functional theory and by IR and Raman spectroscopy. Therefore, facilitated olefin transport for silver polymer electrolyte membranes does not strongly depend on the polymeric matrix at high silver concentrations. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 42: 232–237, 2004