skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.


Title: Xenon Recovery by DD3R Zeolite Membranes: Application in Anaesthetics
Abstract Xe is only produced by cryogenic distillation of air, and its availability is limited by the extremely low abundance. Therefore, Xe recovery after usage is the only way to guarantee sufficient supply and broad application. Herein we demonstrate DD3R zeolite as a benchmark membrane material for CO2/Xe separation. The CO2permeance after an optimized membrane synthesis is one order magnitude higher than for conventional membranes and is less susceptible to water vapour. The overall membrane performance is dominated by diffusivity selectivity of CO2over Xe in DD3R zeolite membranes, whereby rigidity of the zeolite structure plays a key role. For relevant anaesthetic composition (<5 % CO2) and condition (humid), CO2permeance and CO2/Xe selectivity stabilized at 2.0×10−8 mol m−2 s−1 Pa−1and 67, respectively, during long‐term operation (>320 h). This endows DD3R zeolite membranes great potential for on‐stream CO2removal from the Xe‐based closed‐circuit anesthesia system. The large cost reduction of up to 4 orders of magnitude by membrane Xe‐recycling (>99+%) allows the use of the precious Xe as anaesthetics gas a viable general option in surgery.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1545560
PAR ID:
10130268
Author(s) / Creator(s):
 ;  ;  ;  ;  ;  ;  ;  ;  ;  ;  
Publisher / Repository:
Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Angewandte Chemie
Volume:
131
Issue:
43
ISSN:
0044-8249
Page Range / eLocation ID:
p. 15664-15671
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. Abstract 2D layered nanomaterials have attracted considerable attention for their potential for highly efficient separations, among other applications. Here, a 2D lamellar membrane synthesized using hexagonal boron nitride nanoflakes (h‐BNF) for highly efficient ion separation is reported. The ion‐rejection performance and the water permeance of the membrane as a function of the ionic radius, ion valance, and solution pH are investigated. The nonfunctionalized h‐BNF membranes show excellent ion rejection for small sized salt ions as well as for anionic dyes (>97%) while maintaining a high water permeability, ≈1.0 × 10−3L m m−2h−1bar−1). Experiments show that the ion‐rejection performance of the membrane can be tuned by changing the solution pH. The results also suggest that the rejection is influenced by the ionic size and the electrostatic repulsion between fixed negative charges on the BN surface and the mobile ions, and is consistent with the Donnan equilibrium model. These simple‐to‐fabricate h‐BNF membranes show a unique combination of excellent ion selectivity and high permeability compared to other 2D membranes. 
    more » « less
  2. Abstract Single‐layer graphene containing molecular‐sized in‐plane pores is regarded as a promising membrane material for high‐performance gas separations due to its atomic thickness and low gas transport resistance. However, typical etching‐based pore generation methods cannot decouple pore nucleation and pore growth, resulting in a trade‐off between high areal pore density and high selectivity. In contrast, intrinsic pores in graphene formed during chemical vapor deposition are not created by etching. Therefore, intrinsically porous graphene can exhibit high pore density while maintaining its gas selectivity. In this work, the density of intrinsic graphene pores is systematically controlled for the first time, while appropriate pore sizes for gas sieving are precisely maintained. As a result, single‐layer graphene membranes with the highest H2/CH4separation performances recorded to date (H2permeance > 4000 GPU and H2/CH4selectivity > 2000) are fabricated by manipulating growth temperature, precursor concentration, and non‐covalent decoration of the graphene surface. Moreover, it is identified that nanoscale molecular fouling of the graphene surface during gas separation where graphene pores are partially blocked by hydrocarbon contaminants under experimental conditions, controls both selectivity and temperature dependent permeance. Overall, the direct synthesis of porous single‐layer graphene exploits its tremendous potential as high‐performance gas‐sieving membranes. 
    more » « less
  3. We demonstrated for the first time that inkjet printing can be a low-cost, easy, fast, and scalable method for depositing ultrathin (7.5–60 nm) uniform graphene oxide (GO) nanofiltration membranes on polymeric supports for highly effective water purification. A large area (15 × 15 cm 2 ) GO nanofiltration membrane was printed successfully on a modified polyacrylonitrile (M-PAN) support. Water permeance and rejection of small organic molecules (<1 nm, charged and uncharged) of printed GO membranes can be adjusted by controlling the GO “ink” concentration and/or printing time. Compared with commercial polymeric nanofiltration membranes, printed GO membranes, after optimization, showed approximately one order of magnitude higher water permeance and much higher rejection (>95%) of small organic molecules. Printed GO membranes also showed excellent performance in removing pharmaceutical contaminants, with ∼95% rejection and <10% water permeance decline over extended-period permeation testing. We believe that inkjet printing could be an effective method for preparing ultrathin GO membranes for effective water nanofiltration purification. 
    more » « less
  4. More than 90% of the world’s hydrogen (H2) is produced from fossil fuel sources, which requires energy-intensive separation and purification to produce high-purity H2fuel and to capture the carbon dioxide (CO2) by-product. While membranes can decarbonize H2/CO2separation, their moderate H2/CO2selectivity requires secondary H2purification by pressure swing adsorption. Here, we report hyperselective carbon molecular sieve hollow fiber membranes showing H2/CO2selectivity exceeding 7000 under mixture permeation at 150°C, which is almost 30 times higher than the most selective nonmetallic membrane reported in the literature. The membrane is able to maintain an ultrahigh H2/CO2selectivity over 1400 under mixture permeation at 400°C. Pore structure characterization suggests that highly refined ultramicropores are responsible for effectively discriminating the closely sized H2and CO2molecules in the hyperselective carbon molecular sieve membrane. Modeling shows that the unprecedented H2/CO2selectivity will potentially allow one-step enrichment of fuel-grade H2from shifted syngas for decarbonized H2production. 
    more » « less
  5. Abstract Vapor phase ligand treatment (VPLT) of 2‐aminobenzimidazole (2abIm) for 2‐methylimidazole (2mIm) in ZIF‐8 membranes prepared by two different methods (LIPS: ligand induced permselectivation and RTD: rapid thermal deposition) results in a notable shift of the molecular level cut‐off to smaller molecules establishing selectivity improvements from ca. 1.8 to 5 for O2/N2; 2.2 to 32 for CO2/CH4; 2.4 to 24 for CO2/N2; 4.8 to 140 for H2/CH4and 5.2 to 126 for H2/N2. Stable (based on a one‐week test) oxygen‐selective air separation performance at ambient temperature, 7 bar(a) feed, and 1 bar(a) sweep‐free permeate with a mixture separation factor of 4.5 and oxygen flux of 2.6×10−3 mol m−2 s−1is established. LIPS and RTD membranes exhibit fast and gradual evolution upon a 2abIm‐VPLT, respectively, reflecting differences in their thickness and microstructure. Functional reversibility is demonstrated by showing that the original permeation properties of the VPLT‐LIPS membranes can be recovered upon 2mIm‐VPLT. 
    more » « less