Asymmetric and hierarchical porous carbon membranes prepared by a single-step soft-templated method

Abstract

A facile single-step method was developed to prepare carbon membranes derived from novalac phenol–formaldehyde resin as a carbon precursor and Pluronic® F108 (EO₁₃₂–PO₅₀–EO₁₃₂) and polyethylene glycol as the soft template. In a single sintering-step, an asymmetric membrane was formed with a very thin top layer followed mesoporous interlayer supported on a macroporous support. The top separating layer was characterized by closely packed carbon particles while the interlayer is consisted of disordered and loosely packed carbon particles, containing large gaps thus leading to hierarchical structures. The carbon membrane achieved H₂/N₂ permselectivity up to 92, far above the Knudsen selectivity suggesting the molecular sieving mechanism.

Keywords:

• Carbon membrane
• coating
• integrated interlayer and top layer
• one-pot method
• organic sol-gel preparation

Additional information

Funding

The authors are thankful for the financial support given by the National Science Foundation of China (Project 51772031, 51678019). J. C. Diniz da Costa acknowledges support via the Australian Research Council Future Fellowship (FT).