Nanoporous ceramic membranes, membrane structures, and related methods

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10525417-B2
Application number	US-201916366598-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 27, 2019
Priority date	Jan 4, 2018
Publication date	Jan 7, 2020
Grant date	Jan 7, 2020

Abstract

Nanoporous selective sol-gel ceramic membranes, selective-membrane structures, and related methods are described. Representative ceramic selective membranes include ion-conductive membranes (e.g., proton-conducting membranes) and gas selective membranes. Representative uses for the membranes include incorporation into fuel cells and redox flow batteries (RFB) as ion-conducting membranes.

First claim

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows:

1. A nanoporous ceramic membrane, comprising:
a porous support having a plurality of support pores that are 10 nm or greater in diameter; and
a nanoporous composite comprising a nanoporous ceramic filling at least a portion of the plurality of support pores;
wherein the nanoporous ceramic has a spherical fractal nanoporous structure as determined by fitting small-angle scattering spectra of the nanoporous ceramic to a mathematical model.

2. The nanoporous ceramic membrane of claim 1 , wherein the mathematical model is a fractal aggregate model.

3. The nanoporous ceramic membrane of claim 2 , wherein a least squares regression fit of a de-smeared, 1-dimensional small-angle scattering spectra to the fractal aggregate model provides a χ 2 /N pt value of less than 10,
wherein
χ 2 is a sum of an intensity difference between the fractal aggregate model and small-angle scattering spectra data, and
N pt is a number of small-angle scattering data points over a model fitting range.

4. The nanoporous ceramic membrane of claim 2 , wherein the fractal aggregate model is a measure of scattering intensity, I, as a function of a scattering vector, q, according to the equation:
I ( q )= P ( q ) S ( q )+bck
wherein
P(q) is a form factor of building blocks of the fractal aggregate model,
S(q) is an effective structure factor of the fractal aggregate model, and
bck is background scattering.

5. The nanoporous selective ceramic membrane of claim 4 , wherein
the form factor, P(q), is a homogenous spherical form factor defined by the equation

P
⁡

(
q
)

=

scale
×

V
⁡

(

ρ
block

-

ρ
solvent

)

2

⁢

F
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(

qR
0

)

2

,

⁢

F
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(
x
)

=

3
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[

sin
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(
x
)

-

x
⁢

⁢

cos
⁡

(
x
)

]

x
3

,

⁢

V
=

4
3

⁢
π
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⁢

R
0
3

,

⁢

S
⁡

(
q
)

=

1
+

D
f

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Γ
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(

D
f

-
1

)

[

1
+

1
/
q

⁢

⁢
ξ

)

2

]

(

D
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1

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2

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sin
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[

Assignees

• Univ Washington

Inventors

• Newbloom Gregory M
• West Aaron F
• Kastilani Ryan
• Wei Canfeng
• Rodriguez Jaime
• Pozzo Lilo D
• Martin Lauren

Classifications

• C04B2235/5288

  Carbon nanotubes · CPC title

• C04B2235/425

  Graphite · CPC title

• C04B35/624

  Sol-gel processing · CPC title

• C04B35/584

  based on silicon nitride · CPC title

• C04B35/583

  based on boron nitride · CPC title