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Gas-sieving zeolitic membranes fabricated by condensation of precursor nanosheets

Nature Materials volume 20, pages 362–369 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

The synthesis of molecular-sieving zeolitic membranes by the assembly of building blocks, avoiding the hydrothermal treatment, is highly desired to improve reproducibility and scalability. Here we report exfoliation of the sodalite precursor RUB-15 into crystalline 0.8-nm-thick nanosheets, that host hydrogen-sieving six-membered rings (6-MRs) of SiO4 tetrahedra. Thin films, fabricated by the filtration of a suspension of exfoliated nanosheets, possess two transport pathways: 6-MR apertures and intersheet gaps. The latter were found to dominate the gas transport and yielded a molecular cutoff of 3.6 Å with a H2/N2 selectivity above 20. The gaps were successfully removed by the condensation of the terminal silanol groups of RUB-15 to yield H2/CO2 selectivities up to 100. The high selectivity was exclusively from the transport across 6-MR, which was confirmed by a good agreement between the experimentally determined apparent activation energy of H2 and that computed by ab initio calculations. The scalable fabrication and the attractive sieving performance at 250–300 °C make these membranes promising for precombustion carbon capture.

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Fig. 1: RUB-15 framework as an attractive candidate for the fabrication of hydrogen-sieving membranes.
Fig. 2: Characterization of exfoliated RUB-15.
Fig. 3: Characterization of the as-filtered RUB-15 nanosheet film.
Fig. 4: Characterization of the calcined RUB-15 nanosheet film.

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Data availability

All data and detailed protocols that support the findings of this study are available from the authors on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We thank our host institution, EPFL, for generous support. This work was primarily funded by the Swiss Competence Center for Energy Research: Efficiency of Industrial Processes (SCCER-EIP). A part of this work was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (Assistant Professor Energy Grant, grant no. PYAPP2-173645). The computational aspects of this work were supported by a grant from the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS) under project ID s887. We acknowledge E. Oveisi for the helpful discussions on electron microscopy.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Advanced Separations (LAS), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Sion, Switzerland

    Mostapha Dakhchoune, Luis Francisco Villalobos, Mojtaba Rezaei & Kumar Varoon Agrawal

  2. Laboratory of Computational Science and Modelling (COSMO), EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Rocio Semino & Michele Ceriotti

  3. ICGM, Université de Montpellier, CNRS, ENSCM, Montpellier, France

    Rocio Semino

  4. Advanced Membranes and Porous Materials Center, Physical Sciences and Engineering Division, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, Saudi Arabia

    Lingmei Liu & Yu Han

  5. Institut des Sciences et Ingénierie Chimiques (ISIC), EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Pascal Schouwink & Claudia Esther Avalos

  6. Department of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, ETH, Zürich, Switzerland

    Paul Baade & Vanessa Wood

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Contributions

M.D. and K.V.A. conceived the project. M.D. performed the synthesis and characterization of RUB-15 nanosheets and the membranes. L.F.V. and M.D. developed the experimental techniques for the nanosheet assembly and analysed the results. R.S. and M.C. performed the ab initio simulations. L.L., Y.H., L.F.V., M.D. and K.V.A. performed the HRTEM and analysed the data. M.R. performed the AFM measurements. M.D., P.S., P.B. and V.W. performed the out-of-plane and in-plane XRD analysis. M.D. and C.E.A. performed the solid-state NMR measurements. M.D., L.F.V. and K.V.A. wrote the manuscript and prepared the figures with help from the other co-authors. All the authors contributed to the scientific discussions and to the preparation of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Kumar Varoon Agrawal.

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Materials, characterisations, Supplementary Figs. 1–23, Notes 1–5, Tables 1–5 and References 1–10.

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Dakhchoune, M., Villalobos, L.F., Semino, R. et al. Gas-sieving zeolitic membranes fabricated by condensation of precursor nanosheets. Nat. Mater. 20, 362–369 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-020-00822-2

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