title: Growth of High-Quality, Thickness-Reduced Zeolite Membranes towards N2 /CH4 Separation Using High-Aspect-Ratio Seeds.
abstract: Greatly improved zeolite membranes were prepared by using high-aspect-ratio zeolite seeds. Slice-shaped seeds with a high aspect ratio (AR) facilitated growth of thinner continuous SAPO-34 membranes of much higher quality. These membranes showed N2 permeances as high as (2.87±0.15)×10(-7)  mol m(-2)  s(-1)  Pa(-1) at 22 °C while maintaining a decent N2 /CH4 selectivity (9-11.2 for equimolar mixture). On the basis of these thinner high-quality SAPO-34 membranes, fine-tuning the local crystal structure by incorporating more silicon further increased the N2 permeance by 1.4 times without sacrificing the N2 /CH4 selectivity. We expect that application of large AR zeolite seeds might be a viable strategy to grow thin high-quality zeolite membranes. In addition, fine-tuning of the crystal structure by changing the crystal composition might be a feasible way for further improving the separating performance of high-quality zeolite membranes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208 (USA).|SmartState Center of Catalysis for Renewable Fuels, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208 (USA).
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208 (USA).|SmartState Center of Catalysis for Renewable Fuels, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208 (USA).
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208 (USA).|SmartState Center of Catalysis for Renewable Fuels, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208 (USA).
authors.forename: Zhuonan
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Song
authors.affiliation: Gas Technology Institute, 1700 S. Mount Prospect Road, Des Plaines, IL 60018 (USA). Shiguang.Li@gastechnology.org.
authors.forename: Shiguang
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208 (USA). yumiao@cec.sc.edu.|SmartState Center of Catalysis for Renewable Fuels, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208 (USA). yumiao@cec.sc.edu.
authors.forename: Miao
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yu
keywords: crystal seeds; inorganic chemistry; materials science; membranes; separation