Obtention of ZrO2–SiO2 hydrogen permselective membrane by chemical vapor deposition method

• The zirconia–silica composite membrane was prepared by CVD method.
• Zirconia–silica was uniformly formed on the porous alumina support tube.
• H2/N2 selectivity in the modified membrane had higher than that of Knudsen diffusion (3.74).
• The prepared Zr–Si composite membrane is stable in the presence of water vapor.

This paper reports about the zirconia (ZrO2)–silica (SiO2) composite membrane prepared by the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method. A porous alumina tube having a pore size of 100 nm was modified by CVD using the precursor solution (mixture solution of zirconium n-butoxide and tetraethylorthosilicate with weight percent of 1:1) as a ZrO2–SiO2 composite source. The CVD treatment was carried out at 600 °C, 650 °C and 700 °C. The single-component with the presence of H2 and N2 gases in the prepared Zr–Si composite membrane was measured at 300–600 °C. Hydrogen presence at 600 °C was about 7.3 × 10−8 mol (m2 Pa s)−1 and 2.7 × 10−8 mol (m2 Pa s)−1 for ZS650-2 and ZS700 membrane, respectively. The H2/N2 gases selectivity at 600 °C were 24.5 and 35.8 for the ZS650-2 and ZS700 membrane, respectively. The stability test was carried out at 450 °C with an increase of exposure time in the water vapor. It was confirmed that permeances of H2 and N2 gases at through the prepared ZrO2–SiO2 composite membrane did not change with an increase of exposure time in the presence of water vapor.