Spreading-wetting method for highly reproducible tertiary growth of perfective bilayer TS-1 membranes

Spreading-wetting method is adopted to seed a support for tertiary growth of hydrophobic TS-1 membrane. It deposits the seed on the macro-hole of the support and results in a dispersive seed distribution. This enables a highly reproducible preparation of the perfective TS-1 membrane, revealed by SEM as a bilayer structure. An intermediate layer of the TS-1 membrane avoids the leaching of Al from the support and ensures the upper layer as the pure hydrophobic TS-1 membrane, proved by XRD, EDS, and water contact angle measurements. Another important advance about the TS-1 membrane is employing a PcI/SiO2 catalytic hydrocracking method to activate it at 593 K. Such a mild method favors maintaining that perfective macrostructure and hydrophobicity. Bearing the thermal stress, generated during the activation process, desires the TS-1 membrane with a sufficient thickness, gained by prolonging the crystallization time. This phenomenon is verified by gas permeation and ascribed with the membrane's mechanical properties. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.