Preparation of thin supported MFI membranes by in situ nucleation and secondary growth

Abstract Tubular MFI zeolite membranes have been prepared in two steps with a modification of the secondary growth method. The first synthetic step is only devoted to the in situ nucleation of the molecular sieve, directly on the surface of the tubular ceramic UF support, and the bulk of the membrane is then grown on it under different conditions. The right choice of the synthetic parameters (composition of the synthetic clear solutions, temperature) enables one to obtain membranes with high gas permeability and sustained selectivity. The preliminary gas transport results and the morphology are compared with the ones from a membrane obtained in one step: permeability increases by almost one order of magnitude. SEM observations indicate the presence of a very thin (1–2 μm) MFI zeolite layer on the tubular support. The method illustrated in this work is an easy way to skip the deposition of pre-formed nano-sized crystals on tubular supports before the secondary growth of the MFI membrane.