Synthesis and Characterization of ZnAPSO-34 Membrane on Porous α- Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> Support

Abstract

Zeolites and other inorganic molecular sieve membranes have shown potential for separation based on molecular size and shape because of their small pore sized, typically less than 1nm, and their narrow pore size distribution. The in situ synthesis of ZnAPSO-34 films supported on alumina substrates is reported in this paper. Organic and water contents, alumina source, and supports have important roles in the syntheses of ZnAPSO-34 film. Traditionally, the role of organic molecules in the synthesis of these materials has been associated to their structure-directing and their protonation abilities. In our work, we were interested in a new family of materials; the alumino-phosphate, which are similar to zeolites. This work concerns the in-situ preparation of films of ZnAPSO-34 on porous α -alumina tubes. These films of ZnAPSO-34 corresponding to the structure Chabazite (CHA) have an effective intracrystal nanopore diameter of 0.38 nm. The hydrothermal synthesis was made in an autoclave under autogenous pressure. The membrane used was characterized by thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential thermal analysis, X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy after calcination.