PIM Timeline
The PIM concept arose from collaborative research by Neil McKeown and Peter Budd, involving Kadhum Msayib and Bader Ghanem.
2003
GB patent application filed for MICROPOROUS POLYMER MATERIAL
2004
First communications on polymers of intrinsic microporosity and on their potential use in membranes for organophilic pervaporation.
P.M. Budd et al., Chem. Comm., 2004, 230.
P.M. Budd et al., Adv. Mater., 2004, 16, 456.
2005
First publication on the potential application of PIMs in membranes for gas separation. PIM-1 and PIM-7 were shown to surpass the upper bounds of performance that were established by Robeson in 1991 for gas pairs such as O2/N2.
P.M. Budd et al., J. Membr. Sci., 2005, 251, 263.
2008
Gas permeation data on PIMs contributed to a revision by Robeson of the upper bounds of performance for various gas pairs.
L.M. Robeson, J. Membr. Sci., 2008, 320, 390.
2010
US patent granted.
2014
European patent granted.
Commercial product: PIM-1 was used by 3M, under licence from the University of Manchester, in an organic vapor service life indicator (no longer available).
2015
Development of new PIMs leads to new upper bounds for air and hydrogen separations.
R. Swaidan et al., ACS Macro Lett., 2015, 4, 947.
2019
Further development of PIMs leads to new upper bounds for CO2 separations.
B. Comesaña-Gándara et al., Energy Environ. Sci., 2019, 12, 2733.
2022
PIMs available through Merck (Sigma-Aldrich).
