Synthesis, characterization and pervaporation performances of zeolite T membranes

Zeolite T membranes with high pervaporation (PV) performance were synthesized on porous stainless steel (SS), α-Al ₂O ₃ and mullile tubes, respectively, by secondary growth method. The effects of synthesis time, n(SiO ₂)/n(Al ₂O ₃), n(H ₂O)/n (Al ₂O ₃) ratios and the silicon sources were also investigated on the formation and separation properties of as-synthesized zeolite T membranes. The crystal phases and morphologies of zeolite T membrane were characterized by X-ray diffraction(XRD) and scan electron microscope(SEM). Under optimized synthesis conditions, high quality zeolite T membranes could be reproducibly prepared. The membrane formed on SS tube had a high flux of 5.87 kg·m ^-2·h ^-1 with a high water/i-propanol separation factor of 2 420 toward a feed concentration of 10wt% water at 348 K. On contrast, the fluxes of 3.75 kg·m ^-2·h ^-1 and 3.45 kg·m ^-2·h ^-1 with separation factors of 5 700 and 3 610 were gained through membranes prepared on α-Al ₂O ₃ and mullite tubes, respectively. Pervaporation(PV) performances of zeolite T membrane were also influenced greatly by feed concentration and temperature.