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Thin, High‐Flux, Self‐Standing, Graphene Oxide Membranes for Efficient Hydrogen Separation from Gas Mixtures
Author(s) -
Bouša Daniel,
Friess Karel,
Pilnáček Kryštof,
Vopička Ondřej,
Lanč Marek,
Fónod Kristián,
Pumera Martin,
Sedmidubský David,
Luxa Jan,
Sofer Zdeněk
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
chemistry – a european journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.687
H-Index - 242
eISSN - 1521-3765
pISSN - 0947-6539
DOI - 10.1002/chem.201702233
Subject(s) - membrane , graphene , knudsen diffusion , gas separation , hydrogen , knudsen number , oxide , materials science , chemical engineering , diffusion , molecule , chemistry , nanotechnology , organic chemistry , thermodynamics , biochemistry , physics , engineering , metallurgy
The preparation and gas‐separation performance of self‐standing, high‐flux, graphene oxide (GO) membranes is reported. Defect‐free, 15–20 μm thick, mechanically stable, unsupported GO membranes exhibited outstanding gas‐separation performance towards H 2 /CO 2 that far exceeded the corresponding 2008 Robeson upper bound. Remarkable separation efficiency of GO membranes for H 2 and bulky C 3 or C 4 hydrocarbons was achieved with high flux and good selectivity at the same time. On the contrary, N 2 and CH 4 molecules, with larger kinetic diameter and simultaneously lower molecular weight, relative to that of CO 2 , remained far from the corresponding H 2 /N 2 or H 2 /CH 4 upper bounds. Pore size distribution analysis revealed that the most abundant pores in GO material were those with an effective pore diameter of 4 nm; therefore, gas transport is not exclusively governed by size sieving and/or Knudsen diffusion, but in the case of CO 2 was supplemented by specific interactions through 1) hydrogen bonding with carboxyl or hydroxyl functional groups and 2) the quadrupole moment. The self‐standing GO membranes presented herein demonstrate a promising route towards the large‐scale fabrication of high‐flux, hydrogen‐selective gas membranes intended for the separation of H 2 /CO 2 or H 2 /alkanes.