High-resolution physical adsorption on supported borosilicate MFI zeolite membranes: comparison with powdered samples

We have performed physical adsorption measurements to analyze the structure of intact MFI membranes with a nominal Si:B ratio of 12.5:1. Argon adsorption isotherms of membranes at 77 K are nearly identical to isotherms of corresponding zeolite powders throughout most of the domain of relative pressures, the exception being the micropore-filling region (between 10−5 and 10−4 relative pressure). The isotherm in the micropore-filling region is steeper by a factor of 4–5 for the borosilicate membranes than it is for a powder made under the same conditions, while the saturation loadings are found to be similar. This implies a difference in how the zeolite pores fill with argon – either thermodynamic or kinetic in origin – and that fluxes for argon permeation through such powder and membrane samples may differ. Our membrane adsorption measurements reveal no hysteresis and hence no mesoporsity in the zeolite membranes. This finding, from adsorption measurements, stands in contrast to recent alkane permeation measurements on these membranes, which suggest the presence of mesopores. We reaffirm the conclusion, found in previous work, that zeolite membranes can be approximated as a zeolite powder plus a support for the purposes of adsorption characterization.