Development of Hydrogen-Permselective Porous Membranes Using Radiation-Induced Graft Polymerization

• Main Authors: Shin Hasegawa, Shinichi Sawada, Shinya Azami, Tokio Hagiwara, Akihiro Hiroki, Yasunari Maekawa
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-06-01
• Series: Quantum Beam Science
• Subjects: hydrogen permselective membrane; radiation-induced graft polymerization; porous membrane
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2412-382X/4/2/23
• ISSN: 2412-382X

Hydrogen-permselective membranes were developed using a radiation-induced grafting method. Styrene (St) and acrylic acid (AAc) monomers were introduced into porous polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membranes to obtain St- and AAc-grafted PVDF membranes with grafting degrees of 82% and 92%, respectively. The porosities of the grafted membranes were controlled in the range 30–40% by hot-press compression at 159 °C and 4 MPa. The hydrogen permeability was found to be of the order of 10⁻⁷ mol/m²∙s∙Pa, which was higher than the permeability for water vapor and nitrogen (oxygen model). The St- and AAc-grafted membranes exhibited 9.0 and 34 times higher permeability for H₂ than for H₂O and N₂, respectively.