The effects of metal oxide surface on the thermal and hydrothermal stability of ZIF-7 membranes supported on various metal oxide supports (alumina, silica, silica-alumina, and magnesia) were studied at the temperature range of 423 - 673 K and H2O conc...
The effects of metal oxide surface on the thermal and hydrothermal stability of ZIF-7 membranes supported on various metal oxide supports (alumina, silica, silica-alumina, and magnesia) were studied at the temperature range of 423 - 673 K and H2O concentration of 10 - 60 mol-%. ZIF-7 nanocrystals were dip-coated on the surface of α-Al2O3 support and grown in secondary reaction. The prepared membrane exhibited a high H2 permeance (4.0 x 10-7 mol m-2 s-1 Pa-1) with high H2 selectivities (~ 10) over larger CO, CH4, and CO2 gases at an elevated temperature of 573 K. The membrane was thermally stable up to 573 K but exhibited substantial cracks through the grain boundaries indicating that thermal stability of the membrane is determined by the intercrystalline grain boundaries on ZIF-7 overlayer. Furthermore, it was found that the metal oxide supports markedly affect the hydrothermal stability of the ZIFs membranes. The α-Al2O3 supported membrane suffered from fatal hydrothermal degradation of the ZIF-7 membrane layer even at relatively low temperature of 473 K, and structural degradation was facilitated as temperature and H2O vapor concentration increased. Surface acid/base properties of the metal oxide supports had critical impact on the stability of the membrane; the ZIF-7 structure exhibited severe hydrothermal degradation on the acidic Al2O3 and SiO2-Al2O3 supports. Conversely, the ZIF-7 crystalline structure remained intact on the neutral SiO2 and basic MgO supports even at a highly antagonistic hydrothermal condition (573 K, 20 mol-% H2O). These findings provide important new insights for the effective construction of ZIFs membranes with improved structural stabilities for practically relevant thermal and hydrothermal operation conditions.