Decoration of porous ceramic substrate with pencil for enhanced gas separation performance of carbon membrane

Carbon membranes have been extensively applied in gas separation field, and the cost and performance of membranes strongly rely on the properties of the substrate material. In this study, effective nanoporous carbon membranes were prepared by pencil coating of the macroporous ceramics, followed by carbonization treatment of polyfurfuryl alcohol (PFA) coated on the pencil-modified ceramics substrates. The decoration of the macroporous ceramics substrates with pencil effectively repairs surface defects and decreases surface roughness, and greatly prevents PFA from penetrating into the ceramics substrates during pyrolysis. The as-prepared carbon membranes showed high gas permeability and permselectivity properties. This work provides an efficient method to fabricate nanoporous carbon membranes with enhanced gas separation performance. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.