Internal surface modification of zeolite MFI particles and membranes for gas separation

Zeolites are a well-known class of crystalline oxide materials with tunable compositions and nanoporous structures, and have been used extensively in catalysis, adsorption, and ion exchange. The zeolite MFI is one of the well-studied zeolites because it has a pore size and structure suitable for separation or chemical conversion of many industrially important molecules.;I synthesized MFI membranes with [h0h] out-of-plane orientation on α-alumina supports. The membranes were modified by the same procedures as used for MFI particles and with 1-butanol, 3-amino-1-propanol, 2-[(2-aminoethyl)amino]ethanol, and benzenemethanol. The existence of functional groups in the pores of the zeolite was confirmed by PA-FTIR measurements. Permeation measurements of H2, N2, CO2, CH 4, and SF6, were performed at room temperature before and after modification. Permeation of n-butane, and i-butane were measured before and after modification with 1-butanol. For all of the studied gases, gas permeances decreased by 1-2 orders of magnitude compared to bare MFI membranes for modified membranes. This is a strong indication that the organic species in the MFI framework are interacting with or blocking the gas molecule transport through the MFI pores. The CO2/CH 4 permeation selectivity was close to the Knudsen selectivity (0.6) for the membranes before modification. CO2/CH4 selectivity increased for MFI/benzenemethanol modified membrane (1.0), whereas it decreased for the MFI/2-[(2-aminoethyl)amino]ethanol modified membrane (0.5). MFI/benzenemethanol crystals were shown to have a highest sorption capacity for CH4, whereas, MFI/2-[(2-aminoethyl)amino]ethanol crystals were shown to have a highest sorption capacity for CO2 over all other studied molecules Higher sorption of CH4 in MFI/benzenemethanol and higher sorption of CO2 in MFI/2-[(2-aminoethyl)amino]ethanol and their strong binding to the modified membrane are likely the reasons for observing higher and lower CO2/CH4 permeation selectivity respectively, compared to bare MFI membrane.;A further detailed fundamental study of the CO2 adsorption mechanism in modified zeolites is necessary to gain a better understating of the adsorption and permeation behavior of such materials. For the organic molecules with only one functional group (1-butanol, benzenemethanol, and 1-propaneamine), physical adsorption was found - as intuitively expected - to be the only observed mode of attachment of CO2 to the modified zeolite material. Even in the case of MFI modified with 1,3-diaminopropane, only physical adsorption is seen. This is explained by the isolated nature of the amine groups in the material, due to which only a single amine group can interact with a CO2 molecule. On the other hand, chemisorbed CO2 species are clearly observed on bare MFI, and on MFI modified with 3-amino-1-propanol or 2-[(2-aminoethyl)amino]ethanol. Specifically, these are carbonate-like species that arise from the chemisorption of CO2 to the silanol group in bare MFI and the alcohol groups of the modifying molecule. The possibility of significant contributions from external surface silanol groups in adsorbing CO2 chemisorbed species was ruled out by a comparative examination of the FTIR spectra of 10 μm and 900 nm MFI particles modified with 2-[(2-aminoethyl)amino]ethanol. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).