High‐Flux Carbon Molecular Sieve Membranes for Gas Separation

Carbon membranes have great potential for highly selective and cost‐efficient gas separation. Carbon is chemically stable and it is relative cheap. The controlled carbonization of a polymer coating on a porous ceramic support provides a 3D carbon material with molecular sieving permeation performance. The carbonization of the polymer blend gives turbostratic carbon domains of randomly stacked together sp2 hybridized carbon sheets as well as sp3 hybridized amorphous carbon. In the evaluation of the carbon molecular sieve membrane, hydrogen could be separated from propane with a selectivity of 10 000 with a hydrogen permeance of 5 m3(STP)/(m2hbar). Furthermore, by a post‐synthesis oxidative treatment, the permeation fluxes are increased by widening the pores, and the molecular sieve carbon membrane is transformed from a molecular sieve carbon into a selective surface flow carbon membrane with adsorption controlled performance and becomes selective for carbon dioxide. Oxidize to change selection: The controlled carbonization of a thin polymer blend coating on a ceramic support provides a 125 nm thin 3D high‐flux molecular sieve carbon membrane with hydrogen selectivity. By post‐synthesis oxidative treatment, the molecular sieve carbon membrane is transformed into a selective surface‐flow carbon membrane with carbon dioxide selectivity.