Abstract
Cylindrical silica membranes with dead-end structure were prepared by an extended counter-diffusion chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method, in which a tetramethylorthosilicate (TMOS) silica source was fed from the outside of a cylindrical membrane support with γ-alumina interlayer (the membrane side), and oxygen gas was fed from the inside (the support side). Extended counter-diffusion CVD is a method of depositing silica films under highly pressurized conditions applied to the membrane side where TMOS is supplied. Two silica membranes were deposited for 10 h at 573 K under differential pressures of 0.1 MPa and 0.0 MPa applied between the cylindrical membranes. The hydrogen permeances for these silica membranes were unaffected (5 × 10 −8 mol m −2 s −1 Pa −1 at 573 K), although the methane and carbon dioxide permeances were greatly reduced for dense silica films prepared by high-pressure CVD (HPCVD). Therefore, the selectivity of hydrogen over methane and carbon dioxide was 24,000, and 1200, respectively. It is suggested from energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis (EDX) observations in scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and scanning probe microscopy (SPM) results that this high selectivity was due to the reduced number of defects and/or pinholes formed in the dense silica membranes by HPCVD.
Published Version
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