Preparation and gas separation of nano-sized nickel particle-filled carbon membranes

Nano-sized nickel particle-filled carbon membranes were prepared on the inner surface of porous tubular alumina supports by dip-coating method. The precursor solutions were prepared by dispersing different amounts of nano-sized nickel particles in the alcohol solutions of phenolic resin. The Ni-filled carbon membranes showed higher single gas permeances and ideal selectivities than the pure carbon membranes when the nickel content in the precursor solution was 1 wt.%. With the increase of the nickel content from 1 to 5 wt.%, the corresponding carbon membranes showed decreasing hydrogen permeances and increasing CO2 over H2 ideal selectivities. Further increase of the nickel content to 7.5 and 10 wt.% resulted in the increase of the H2 permeances and the decrease of the CO2/H2 ideal selectivities of the corresponding carbon membranes.