Jerry Y.S. Lin

Microporous inorganic membranes for molecular separations are versatile and can be designed to separate a wide range of gas or liquid mixtures. The perm-selectivity of microporous membranes depends on pore size and solubility (adsorption equilibrium), while permeance is determined by pore size, porosity, and the thickness of the microporous layer. Although pore size reduction has been studied to enhance perm-selectivity, it often results in reduced porosity and permeability for the permeating molecule. The more effective approach to improve perm-selectivity with minimal reduction in permeability is to reduce pore size without significantly altering porosity. Experimental results of chemical vapor deposition modification of mesoporous alumina membranes will be presented to illustrate these two structural variations. Modifying microporous membranes to enhance perm-selectivity with minimal permeance reduction for the selective molecule can be achieved through a gated-pore structure design. This involves inserting a gate into the micropores to narrow the pore size in a specific region of the membrane wall. This strategy will be demonstrated using two examples. First, catalytic cracking deposition of silica on microporous MFI zeolite membranes forms a gate that effectively narrows the MFI zeolitic pores. The modified MFI zeolite membranes exhibit a 5 to 30-fold increase in hydrogen/carbon-dioxide selectivity with only about a 30% reduction in hydrogen permeance. The second example involves membrane surface ligand exchange modification of ZIF-8 membranes by partially exchanging the original ligand linkers with a bulkier one. This ligand exchange is designed to narrow the aperture of the crystallites on the surface of the ZIF-8 membrane. Such post-synthesis modification can improve propylene/propane selectivity of ZIF-8 membranes from about 100 to 200, with virtually no reduction in propylene permeance.  All these results demonstrate the promise of post-synthesis modification based on the design of the gated-pore structure to enhance the separation performance (high selectivity and permeance) of microporous membranes.

Jerry Y.S. Lin is a Regents’ Professor at Arizona State University.  He was department chair of chemical engineering at ASU from 2006-2009 after his 13 year appointment as a faculty member at University of Cincinnati.  Dr. Lin’s main research areas are membrane science, adsorption/catalysis, and energy storage.  He has published about 400 papers in these areas and is an inventor of 15 issued or pending US and European patents, and his papers have been cited over 27,000 per google/scholar.  Dr. Lin received several awards including AIChE Institute Award for Excellence in Industrial Gas Technologies (2009) and AIChE Gerhold Award (2021), and is an elected fellow of American  Society for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), and North American Membrane Society (NAMS).  He currently serves as co-Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Membrane Science and Journal of Membrane Science Letters.

• Time: 11:00 AM
• Location: 206 Furnas Hall