A hybrid processing method for high performance hydrogen-selective silica membranes

Gopalakrishnan, Suraj and Yoshino, Yasushi and Nomura, Mikihiro and Nair, Balagopal N. and Nakao, Shin-Ichi. 2007. A hybrid processing method for high performance hydrogen-selective silica membranes. Journal of Membrane Science. 297 (1-2): 5-9.

Source Title

Journal of Membrane Science

DOI

10.1016/j.memsci.2007.03.034

Faculty

Department of Applied Chemistry

Division of Engineering, Science and Computing

Faculty of Science

Remarks

NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Journal of Membrane Science. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Journal of Membrane Science, Volume 297, Issues 1–2, 5 July 2007, Pages 5–9, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.memsci.2007.03.034

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/3776

Collection

Curtin Research Publications

Abstract

Development of high performance hydrogen-selective inorganic membrane has become an important requisite for the production of hydrogen, an energy carrier that could cater the ongoing energy revolution. This paper describes a novel, hybrid method to process high performance hydrogen perm-selective membranes by the rapid CVD modification of a sol-gel silica layer. The initial N2 permeance values through a membrane were brought down by four orders of magnitude to 2.741010 mol m2 s1 Pa1 within 5 min of CVD, while maintaining the H2 permeance values as high as 6.43107 mol m2 s1 Pa1 (H2/N2 = 2300). It is likely that the reduction in the CVD zone thickness achieved by the presence of pre-existing sol-gel silica layer is the reason for the rapid modification of the pore structure to high performance membranes.