Preparation and characterization of ceramic supported ultra-thin (~1 µm) Pd-Ag membranes

This work reports the preparation and characterization of ultra-thin (~1 µm thick) Pd-Ag supported membranes for hydrogen purification. Ultra-thin membranes with different thicknesses (ranging from 0.46 to 1.29 µm) have been prepared by electroless plating (ELP) technique onto asymmetric tubular porous alumina supports. The membranes have been characterized by single gas and mixed gas permeation experiments at temperatures between 300 and 500 °C obtaining a correlation for the membrane permeation as a function of the activation energy and the membrane thickness. Hydrogen permeation results of the ultra-thin Pd-Ag membranes have been compared with other highly permeable membranes reported in the literature and they show some of the highest H2 permeance values. A 1.29 µm thick membrane has been tested for 1000 h at 400 °C and has shown a stable H2 permeance of 9.0−9.4×10−6 mol m−2 s−1 Pa−1 with a H2/N2 perm-selectivity between 3300 and 2000 at 100 kPa transmembrane pressure difference. The same membrane has been tested with a feed gas mixture of H2/N2/CO with a 15% CO content and H2 binary mixtures containing N2, CH4 and CO2. When tested in a catalyst fluidization environment during 100 h, the 1.29 µm thick membrane showed stable H2 permeance and H2/N2 perm-selectivity.