An Experimental Investigations into Preparation of Carbon Membrane Based on Porous Ceramic Supports and Phenolic Resin as a Precursor

In this paper, some samples of supported carbon membranes are prepared with phenolic resin as a precursor. The effects of coating conditions including solvent type, resin concentration, and coating method on the preparation of a defect-free resin layer on the support surface are investigated. This layer is faced to carbonization operation to be converted to the carbon layer. To study the effect of support, two different supports with different materials and porosity are used. The results show that only resin concentration affects the preparation of the defect-free layer. A high concentration of resin can produce a complete layer on the surface of the support. But this layer is destroyed during carbonization and some cracks appear on the surface of the membrane due to the high thickness of resin layer. Similar experiments with supports having pores with smaller diameters show similar results. By repeating the coating-carbonization cycle, producing the complete resin layer is possible; but, this layer is also destroyed during carbonization and the produced membrane shows a little selectivity for gas separation.