Growth of High-Quality, Thickness-Reduced Zeolite Membranes towards N₂/CH₄ Separation Using High-Aspect-Ratio Seeds

Greatly improved zeolite membranes were prepared by using high-aspect-ratio zeolite seeds. Slice-shaped seeds with a high aspect ratio (AR) facilitated growth of thinner continuous SAPO-34 membranes of much higher quality. These membranes showed N₂ permeances as high as (2.87±0.15)×10^-7 molm^-2s^-1Pa^-1 at 22°C while maintaining a decent N₂/CH₄ selectivity (9-11.2 for equimolar mixture). On the basis of these thinner high-quality SAPO-34 membranes, fine-tuning the local crystal structure by incorporating more silicon further increased the N₂ permeance by 1.4 times without sacrificing the N₂/CH₄ selectivity. We expect that application of large AR zeolite seeds might be a viable strategy to grow thin high-quality zeolite membranes. In addition, fine-tuning of the crystal structure by changing the crystal composition might be a feasible way for further improving the separating performance of high-quality zeolite membranes.