Amine templated zinc phosphates phases for membrane separations

摘要

This research is focused on developing inorganic molecular sieve membranes for light gas separations such as hydrogen recovery and natural gas purification, and organic molecular separations, such as chiral enantiomers. The authors focus on zinc phosphates because of the ease in crystallization of new phases and the wide range of pore sizes and shapes obtained. With hybrid systems of zinc phosphate crystalline phases templated by amine molecules, the authors are interested in better understanding the association of the template molecules to the inorganic phase, and how the organic transfers its size, shape, and (in some cases) chirality to the bulk. Furthermore, the new porous phases can also be synthesized as thin films on metal oxide substrates. These films allow one to make membranes from organic/inorganic hybrid systems, suitable for diffusion experiments. Characterization techniques for both the bulk phases and the thin films include powder X-ray diffraction, TGA, Scanning Electron Micrograph (SEM) and Electron Dispersive Spectrometry (EDS).