Fabrication of novel porous carbon membrane/sintered metal fibers composite for isopropanol adsorption

• Novel carbon membrane/SMFs composite was designed and characterized.
• Structured fixed bed based carbon membrane materials was designed.
• Adsorption behavior of isopropanol in structured fixed bed was investigated.
• Mass transfer and bed utilization were enhanced by adding carbon membranes.

Novel porous thin-sheet carbon membrane/sintered metal steel fibers (SMFs) composites were developed by the dipping and carbonization process. These novel carbon membrane materials have been characterized by a series of techniques including thermal gravimetric analyses (TGA), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and N2 adsorption–desorption method. Adsorption breakthrough curves of isopropanol in the structured fixed bed filled with both activated carbons in the inlet of bed and carbon membrane/SMFs composites in the outlet of bed were investigated, comparing with that in fixed bed containing only activated carbons with the same bed height. The experimental results indicated that the carbon membranes with different thickness from 748.1 nm to 1.27 μm were successfully fabricated on the surface of SMFs support. The length of unused bed (LUB) theory was also employed to study the breakthrough curves. The porous carbon membrane/SMFs composites filled in fixed be show exhibited excellent bed utilization, demonstrating by a lowest LUB value (1.17 cm). The porous carbon membrane/SMFs composites as high efficiency adsorbents can offer a much higher mass transfer efficiency, contacting efficiency as well as adsorption rate.

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