Rapid thermal processing of microporous silica membranes

The emergence of rapid thermal processing (RTP) as a technique for inorganic membrane fabrication is an innovative concept. At its core it takes the rapid annealing techniques developed for the semiconductor industry and applies them to microporous silica membrane manufacture, dramatically reducing membrane fabrication times and in turn reducing membrane production costs. The ultrathin silica membrane layers are perfectly suited to RTP avoiding issues of cracking due to thermal stress, while the calcination conditions allow nonequilibrium structures to be formed. Furthermore, with the various types of RTP technology made available, the exploration of hybridization, multilayer structure, and polymer-supported inorganic thin films can further open alternate research avenues and applications. Current results are comparable to conventional thermal processing for both gas separations and desalination. RTP therefore offers significant benefits toward commercialization of inorganic membranes and research productivity of the inorganic membrane research community both in terms of performance and reduced fabrication time