Hydrogen selective properties of cesium-hydrogensulphate membranes

Abstract

The production procedure of a CsHS04-Si02 composite membrane was optimized in order to obtain the highest possible H2:C02 and H2:C~ Idea selectivity permeance. The optimized membrane preparation procedure led to the preparation of membranes with Idea selectivity of 5 and 10 towards H2:C~ and H2:C02 respectively. The H2 permeance value is on average 0.15 umol- s-l·m-2.Pa-I. The reproducibility of the optimized membrane was further investigated and was found to be satisfactory. An attempt was made to discover the gas transport mechanism of H2, C~ and C02. Gas permeance measurements were carried out as a function of time and temperature (between 25-180°C) using H2, C~ and C02 as analyte gases. XRD, TGA and impedance spectroscopy were used to identify the phases of CsHS04 within the membrane. The gas permeation mechanism was found to be a combination of Knudsen diffusion and solution diffusion. The pores that allow Knudsen diffusion (allow transport of Hi, CH4 and C02) are believed to be located at the CSHS04 crystal phase boundaries. In parallel, H2 diffuses selectively through the lattice of phase II/III of CsHS04 ..