Effects of carbonization conditions on the properties of coal-based microfiltration carbon membranes

Abstract

Carbon membranes, a novel porous inorganic membrane, have considerable potential applications in many industrial fields owing to their better stability in aggressive and adverse environments. However, the high cost of precursor materials has hampered their wide applications on commercial scale. In this study, coal, a cheap material, is used to prepare the tubular microfiltration carbon membranes. The effects of carbonization conditions on the properties of coal-based carbon membrane were investigated by the variation of the weight loss, shrinkage ratio of tube size and pore structure characteristics during carbonization. The results show that carbonization conditions greatly affect the properties of coal-based carbon membranes. The carbon membranes carbonized in the inert gases have more “open” porous structure and high gas flux compared to those carbonized in vacuum which makes the carbon membrane possess smaller pores and low gas flux. The carbonization temperature plays an important role in the determination of the pore structure and densification of carbon matrix. At the temperature below 600°C, the pore structure and carbon matrix of carbon membrane are formed with more than 95% of the total weight loss and only 48% of the total size shrinkage ratio. The matrix of carbon membrane gets more compact with the temperature increasing from 600°C to 900°C, in which the size shrinkage ratio is up to 52% with only 5% of the total weight loss. The low heating rate should favor the preparation of the carbon membranes with small average pore size and narrow pore size distribution, and the high gas flow rate can produce the carbon membranes with large average pore size and high porosity.