Temperature and Mechanical Stabilities and Changes in Porosity of Silicone Binder Based Zeolite Coatings

Zeolite coatings allow for process intensification in various fields. In the zeolite coating process, silicone polymers are well suited as binding agents due to their unique and outstanding properties like thermal stability and water vapor permeability. In this work, selected silicone binders were used to prepare zeolite coatings which were characterized subsequently for their thermal and mechanical properties and pore accessibilities. Thermogravimetrical analysis (TGA) and temperature-controlled diffuse reflection FT-IR spectroscopy (T-DRIFTS) were performed to assess the thermal stability. Cross-cut, bend, and impact tests were used to investigate the mechanical stability of the coatings. The accessibility of the zeolite pores in the coating was quantified by N-2 porosimetry. Superior coatings could be obtained using Silres MPSO Binder and Silixan's W220, which had the least impact on the zeolite micropore volume while Silres REN 50 coatings showed the best mechanical stability and were very temperature stable at the same time.