The seeded growth of dense and thin SAPO-34 membranes on porous α-Al2O3 substrates under microwave irradiation

SAPO-34 crystals and membranes were hydrothermally synthesized using microwave-assisted heating at 180 degrees C for 2 and 4 h respectively. According to the characterization using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD), the cubic-shaped and uniformly distributed pure SAPO-34 crystals sized at ca. 400 nm could be formed under microwave irradiation for 4 h. The dense and 3 mu m thick SAPO-34 membrane was fabricated on the continuous spin-coated seed layer by microwave-assisted hydrothermal crystallization for 4 h. It was demonstrated that the CO2/CH4 separation selectivity could be higher than 95 at 303 K and 0.1 MPa pressure drop for the synthesized SAPO-34 membrane, where the CO2 permeance was reached to 1.2 x 10(-6) mol/m(2) s Pa by applying the homogeneous and thin SAPO-34 membrane. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.