TY - JOUR

T1 - Seeding-free synthesis of high-performance MFI zeolite membranes on superhydrophobic supports inspired by “like grows like” principle

AU - Ma, Xixi

AU - Wu, Xiaocao

AU - Caro, Jürgen

AU - Huang, Aisheng

N1 - Funding Information: Financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China ( 21878100 , 21761132003 , 21576273 ), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities ( 40500-20101-222093 ) are acknowledged. K. Xu in NIMTE is thanked for help in conduction of zeolite membrane preparation.

PY - 2019/11/1

Y1 - 2019/11/1

N2 - A seeding-free synthesis strategy was developed for the preparation of dense and phase-pure MFI zeolite membranes based on “like grows like” principle. Through covalent modification of the porous ceramic supports by using 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluoroalkyltriethoxysilanes (POTS), the support surface was changed from hydrophilic to hydrophobic, which promotes the nucleation and growth of hydrophobic MFI zeolite membranes. Thin, well-intergrown and phase-pure MFI zeolite membranes, with a thickness of about 2.0–3.0 μm, can be facilely prepared on POTS-modified supports like Al2O3 and TiO2 at 175 °C for 24 h. No cracks, pinholes or other visible macroscopic defects are observed in the membrane layer. The MFI zeolite membranes were evaluated in the hydrophobic separation of 5.0 wt% ethanol/water mixture at 75 °C by pervaporation. The MFI zeolite membrane prepared on the POTS-modified TiO2 disk shows high pervaporation separation for ethanol recovery. At 75 °C, a separation factor of 103 and total flux of 2.56 kg/m2h can be obtained, which is promising to extract bio-alcohols from the fermentation broth.

AB - A seeding-free synthesis strategy was developed for the preparation of dense and phase-pure MFI zeolite membranes based on “like grows like” principle. Through covalent modification of the porous ceramic supports by using 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluoroalkyltriethoxysilanes (POTS), the support surface was changed from hydrophilic to hydrophobic, which promotes the nucleation and growth of hydrophobic MFI zeolite membranes. Thin, well-intergrown and phase-pure MFI zeolite membranes, with a thickness of about 2.0–3.0 μm, can be facilely prepared on POTS-modified supports like Al2O3 and TiO2 at 175 °C for 24 h. No cracks, pinholes or other visible macroscopic defects are observed in the membrane layer. The MFI zeolite membranes were evaluated in the hydrophobic separation of 5.0 wt% ethanol/water mixture at 75 °C by pervaporation. The MFI zeolite membrane prepared on the POTS-modified TiO2 disk shows high pervaporation separation for ethanol recovery. At 75 °C, a separation factor of 103 and total flux of 2.56 kg/m2h can be obtained, which is promising to extract bio-alcohols from the fermentation broth.

KW - Ethanol/water separation

KW - Like grows like

KW - MFI zeolite membrane

KW - Molecular sieve membrane

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85068261193&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.micromeso.2019.109589

DO - 10.1016/j.micromeso.2019.109589

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85068261193

VL - 288

JO - Microporous and Mesoporous Materials

JF - Microporous and Mesoporous Materials

SN - 1387-1811

M1 - 109589

ER -