Open-Pore Two-Dimensional MFI Zeolite Nanosheets for the Fabrication of Hydrocarbon-Isomer-Selective Membranes on Porous Polymer Supports

Han Zhang; Qiang Xiao; Xianghai Guo; Najun Li; Prashant Kumar; Neel Rangnekar; Mi Young Jeon; Shaeel Al-Thabaiti; Katabathini Narasimharao; Sulaiman Nasir Basahel; Berna Topuz; Frank J Onorato; Christopher W Macosko; K Andre Mkhoyan; Michael Tsapatsis

doi:10.1002/anie.201601135

Open-Pore Two-Dimensional MFI Zeolite Nanosheets for the Fabrication of Hydrocarbon-Isomer-Selective Membranes on Porous Polymer Supports

Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2016 Jun 13;55(25):7184-7. doi: 10.1002/anie.201601135. Epub 2016 Apr 21.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Minnesota, 421 Washington Ave SE, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA.
² Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education for Advanced Catalysis Materials, Institute of Physical Chemistry, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua, Zhejiang, 321004, China. xiaoq@zjnu.edu.cn.
³ Key Laboratory of Systems Bioengineering, Ministry of Education, Department of Pharmaceutical Engineering, School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300072, China.
⁴ College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu, 215123, China.
⁵ Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, 21589, Saudi Arabia.
⁶ Department of Chemical Engineering, Ankara University, Ankara, 06100, Turkey.
⁷ Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Minnesota, 421 Washington Ave SE, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA. tsapatsis@umn.edu.

PMID: 27101318
DOI: 10.1002/anie.201601135

Abstract

Two-dimensional zeolite nanosheets that do not contain any organic structure-directing agents were prepared from a multilamellar MFI (ML-MFI) zeolite. ML-MFI was first exfoliated by melt compounding and then detemplated by treatment with a mixture of H2 SO4 and H2 O2 (piranha solution). The obtained OSDA-free MFI nanosheets disperse well in water and can be used for coating applications. Deposits made on porous polybenzimidazole (PBI) supports by simple filtration of these suspensions exhibit an n-butane/isobutane selectivity of 5.4, with an n-butane permeance of 3.5×10(-7) mol m(-2) s(-1) Pa(-1) (ca. 1000 GPU).

Keywords: membranes; nanosheets; separation; zeolites.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.