Porous supports

An electrochemical vapor deposition (EVD) technique has been developed that produces thin layers of refractory oxides that are suitable for the electrolyte and cell interconnection in SOFCs (9). In this technique, the appropriate metal chloride (MeCl ) vapor is introduced on one side of a porous support tube, and H2/H2O gas is introduced on the other side. The gas environments on both sides of the support tube act to form two galvanic couples, ie. 

Fig. 10. Composite hoUow-fiber membranes (a) polysulfone boUow fiber coated witb fiiran resin. A and B denote fiiran resin surface and porous support, respectively (b) cross section of composite boUow fiber (PEI/TDI coated on polysulfone matrix). C, D, and E denote tightly cross-linked surface, "gutter" gel layer, and porous support, respectively. Both fibers were developed for reverse osmosis appHcation (15).

An excellent review of composite RO and nanofiltration (NE) membranes is available (8). These thin-fHm, composite membranes consist of a thin polymer barrier layer formed on one or more porous support layers, which is almost always a different polymer from the surface layer. The surface layer determines the flux and separation characteristics of the membrane. The porous backing serves only as a support for the barrier layer and so has almost no effect on membrane transport properties. The barrier layer is extremely thin, thus allowing high water fluxes. The most important thin-fHm composite membranes are made by interfacial polymerization, a process in which a highly porous membrane, usually polysulfone, is coated with an aqueous solution of a polymer or monomer and then reacts with a cross-linking agent in a water-kniniscible solvent. 

A few industrial catalysts have simple compositions, but the typical catalyst is a complex composite made up of several components, illustrated schematically in Figure 9 by a catalyst for ethylene oxidation. Often it consists largely of a porous support or carrier, with the catalyticaHy active components dispersed on the support surface. For example, petroleum refining catalysts used for reforming of naphtha have about 1 wt% Pt and Re on the surface of a transition alumina such as y-Al203 that has a surface area of several hundred square meters per gram. The expensive metal is dispersed as minute particles or clusters so that a large fraction of the atoms are exposed at the surface and accessible to reactants (see Catalysts, supported). 

Fig. 9. Schematic representation of a catalyst for ethylene oxide synthesis (not to scale). The porous support particle consists of microparticles held together...

Supports. The principal component of a typical catalyst is the porous support (49,50). Most supports are robust soHds that can be made with wide ranges of surface areas and pore size distributions. The most widely appHed supports are metal oxides others are carbon, kieselguhr, organic polymers, and zeoHtes. 

Another type of membrane is the dynamic membrane, formed by dynamically coating a selective membrane layer on a finely porous support. Advantages for these membranes are high water flux, generation and regeneration in situ abiUty to withstand elevated temperatures and corrosive feeds, and relatively low capital and operating costs. Several membrane materials are available, but most of the work has been done with composites of hydrous zirconium oxide and poly(acryhc acid) on porous stainless steel or ceramic tubes. 

Spiral membranes are the usual way to form flat sheet into modules. They have the characteristic that the feed and the permeate move at right angles. Since the membrane is always cast on a porous support, point-permeate values are influenced by the substrate. 

Precipitates or salts are used when corrosive liquor must be filtered, and where there is no available medium of sufficient fineness that is corrosion-resistant and will not contaminate the cake. In these cases, precipitates or salts are used on porous supports. In the filtration of caustic liquors, ordinary salt (sodium chloride) is used as the filter medium in the form of a precoat over metallic cloth. This procedure has the advantage that the salt medium will not be detrimental to either the cake or the filtrate if inadvertently mixed with it. 

The development and optimization of porous supports for chromatographic applications have depended on advances in polymer chemistry together with advances in particle manufacturing technology. Separations that required hours or days to achieve with early SEC supports are now typically performed in less than an hour. The following description of various types of media is presented in the approximate chronological order in which the various media were developed. 

Generally, electrophoresis is carried out not in free solution but in a porous support matrix such as polyacrylamide or agarose, which retards the movement of molecules according to their dimensions relative to the size of the pores in the matrix. 

As the main disadvantage of liquid membrane systems is the instability over a longer period of time, another approach would be to perform separation through a solid membrane [22]. Enantioselective polymer membranes typically consist of a nonse-lective porous support coated with a thin layer of an enantioselective polymer. This... 

Fig. 16.7. Scanning electron micrograph of a section of an asymmetric polyamine ultrafiltration membrane showing finely porous skin layer on more openly porous supporting matrix.

Once the membrane was successfully produced, it was analysed for characterisation and scanning. The sol-gel technique was successfully used to obtain a crack-free unsupported membrane, which was expected to have pore size of 1-2 nm. The development of the crack-free membrane may not have the same strength without strong, solid support. The next stage of this work was to characterise the fabricated membrane. Hie objectives of this study were to develop a zirconia-coated 7-alumina membrane with inorganic porous support by the sol-gel method and to characterise the surface morphology of the membrane and ceramic support. 

Pd metals immobilized on SBA-15 and NaY were applied as catalysts in the synthesis of amino alcohol. These catalysts afford a high level of enantioselectivity in the asymmetric hydrogenation of a-keto alcohol to corresponding amino alcohol. The large peilladium metal exhibited higher catalytic activity and enantioselectivity than well dispersed one over porous supports in the hydrogenation. 

Other modes of LC operation include liquid-liquid partition chromatography (LLC) and bonded phase chromatography. In the former, a stationary liquid phase which is immiscible with the mobile phase is coated on a porous support, with separation based on partition equilibrium differences of components between the two liquid phases. This mode offers an alternative to ion exchange in the fractionation of polar, water soluble substances. While quite useful, the danger exists in LLC that the stationary phase can be stripped from the column, if proper precautions are not taken. Hence, it is typical to pre-equil-ibrate carefully the mobile and stationary phases and to use a forecolimn, heavily loaded with stationary phase 9). 

The silicalite-alumina membrane was prepared after adding a solution containing the silicalite precursor (i e silica + template) to the above-mentioned porous tube (hereafter called support) and a specific hydrothermal treatment performed [8], under the chosen conditions no material is formed in the absence of the porous support. The tube is then calcined at 673 K for removing the template. 

The typical solid catalyst used in technology consists of small catalytically active species, such as particles of metal, metal oxide, or metal sulfide, dispersed on a low-cost, high-area, nearly inert porous support such as a metal oxide or zeolite. The catalytic species are typically difficult to characterize in-... 

Process Miniaturization Second International Conference, CATTECH, December 1998 Steep progress in microelectronics in the past key players topics of IMRET 2 general advantages of micro flow energy, safety, process development, combinatorial catalyst testing, lab-on-a-chip biological applications anodically oxidized catalyst supports as alternatives to non-porous supports [220]. 

Mikroreaktoren sind so klein wie ein Fingerhut, Handdsblatt, May 1998 Steep progress in microelectronics, sensor and analytical techniques in the past transport intensification for catalysis first catalytic micro reactors available partial oxidation to acrolein partial hydrogenation to cyclododecene anodically oxidized catalyst supports as alternatives to non-porous supports study group on micro reactors at Dechema safety, selectivity, high pressure exclusion of using particle solutions limited experience with lifetime of micro reactors [236],... 

Haas-Santo, K., Eichtner, M., Schubert, K., Preparation of microstructure compatible porous supports by sol-gel synthesis for catalyst coatings, Appl. Catal. A 220 (2001) 79-92. 

Natural convection can be eliminated entirely when electrolytes held in a matrix or porous support are used instead of free liquids. Natural convection will not develop in a pore space when the individual pores are sufficiently narrow. When such electrolytes are used, the diffusion layer propagates across the entire matrix (i.e., across the full electrode gap). 

Interpretation of pubhshed data is often comphcated by the fact that rather complex catalytic materials are utilized, namely, poly disperse nonuniform metal particles, highly porous supports, etc., where various secondary effects may influence or even submerge PSEs. These include mass transport and discrete particle distribution effects in porous layers, as confirmed by Gloaguen, Antoine, and co-workers [Gloaguen et al., 1994, 1998 Antoine et al., 1998], and diffusion-readsorption effects, as shown by Jusys and co-workers for the MOR and by Chen and Kucemak for the ORR [Jusys et al., 2003 Chen and Kucemak, 2004a, b]. Novel approaches to the design of ordered nanoparticle arrays where nanoparticle size and interparticle distances can be varied independently are expected to shed hght on PSEs in complex multistep multielectron processes such as the MOR and the ORR. 

---