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Nanoporous metal–polymer composite membranes for organics separations and catalysis

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Abstract

Metallic thin-film composite membranes are produced by sputtering metal films onto commercial polymer membranes. The separations capability of the membrane substrate is enhanced with the addition of a 10 nm Ta film. The addition of a tantalum layer decreases the molecular weight cutoff of the membrane from 70 kDa dextran (19 nm) to below 5 kDa (6 nm). Water flux drops from 168 LMH/bar (LMH: liters/meters2/hour) (polymer support) to 8.8 LMH/bar (Ta composite). A nanoporous layer is also added to the surface through Mg/Pd film deposition and dealloying. The resulting nanoporous Pd is a promising catalyst with a ligament size of 4.1 ± 0.9 nm. The composite membrane's ability to treat water contaminated with chlorinated organic compounds (COCs) is determined. When pressurized with hydrogen gas, the nanoporous Pd composite removes over 70% of PCB-1, a model COC, with one pass. These nanostructured films can be incorporated onto membrane supports enabling diverse reactions and separations.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by NSF KY EPSCoR grant (Grant 1355438) and NIH-NIEHS-SRC (Award No. P42ES007380). The authors thank Nicolas J. Briot at the UK Electron Microscopy Center, as well as John May and Megan Combs at the UK Environmental Training and Research Lab for help with FIB/SEM and GC/MS work, respectively. The authors also thank Solecta Inc., Oceanside, CA, for providing a flat sheet membrane for testing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical & Materials Engineering, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, 40506, USA

    Michael J. Detisch, Thomas John Balk, Mariah Bezold & Dibakar Bhattacharyya

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  1. Michael J. Detisch
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Correspondence to Dibakar Bhattacharyya.

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Detisch, M.J., John Balk, T., Bezold, M. et al. Nanoporous metal–polymer composite membranes for organics separations and catalysis. Journal of Materials Research 35, 2629–2642 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2020.176

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