Vacuum Deposited Self-Supporting Pd Alloy Membranes for Use in the Efficient Production of Coal-derived Hydrogen

摘要

Thin self-supported permeable membranes of palladium alloys such as palladium/copper have many applications in which hydrogen separation is required. High permeability membranes have been fabricated by magnetron sputtering onto a pretreated silicon substrate followed by lift-off to form free standing high quality films of controllable alloy composition down to 3 μm in thickness. Using these methods, palladium/copper membranes 12 inches in diameter have been made with thicknesses ranging from 2 to 15 microns. The highest flux recorded was 242 SCFH/ft~2 with a 2 μm thick palladium/copper at 400 °C and 20 psig feed pressure which when extrapolated is over twice the 2010 Department of Energy pure hydrogen flux target. Several membranes have been made at different thicknesses and these membranes are highly selective.