Tailoring the Stabilization and Pyrolysis Processes of Carbon Molecular Sieve Membrane Derived from Polyacrylonitrile for Ethylene/Ethane Separation

For ethylene/ethane separation, a CMS (carbon molecular sieve) membrane was developed with a PAN (polyacrylonitrile) polymer precursor on an alumina support. To provide an excellent thermal property to PAN precursor prior to the pyrolysis, the stabilization as a pre-treatment process was carried out. Tuning the stabilization condition was very important to successfully preparing the CMS membrane derived from the PAN precursor. The stabilization and pyrolysis processes for the PAN precursor were finely tuned, and optimized in terms of stabilization temperature and time, as well as pyrolysis temperature, heating rate, and soaking time. The PAN stabilized at >250 °C showed improved thermal stability and carbon yield. The CMS membrane derived from stabilized PAN showed reasonable separation performance for ethylene permeance (0.71 GPU) and ethylene/ethane selectivity (7.62), respectively. Increasing the pyrolysis temperature and soaking time gave rise to an increase in the gas permeance, and a reduction in the membrane selectivity. This trend was opposite to that for the CMS membranes derived from other polymer precursors. The optimized separation performance (ethylene permeance of 2.97 GPU and ethylene/ethane selectivity of 7.25) could be achieved at the pyrolysis temperature of 650 °C with a soaking time of 1 h. The separation performance of the CMS membrane derived from the PAN precursor was comparable to that of other polymer precursors, and surpassed them regarding the upper bound trade off.

Thermal property of rock powder-based nanofibers for high temperature filtration and adsorption

Rocks have good chemical and thermal properties, which are widely distributed in mountainous areas and contain a great number of chemical elements. Weathered rock powders were used as an additive in an electrospun solution to fabricate rock powder-based nanofibers, and the morphology and thermal property of nanofibers were studied. The results revealed that the rock powder was the most economical approach to fabrication of nanofibers with excellent thermal property and high hydrophilicity. This paper sheds a light on rock powder-based nano-fibers with well-defined characteristics for advanced applications for high temperature filtration and absorption, fire prevention and others.

High thermally stable thermosetting polyimides derived from a carborane-containing tetramine

In this study, we report the preparation of thermosetting polyimides (PIs) based on carborane-containing tetramine and their characterizations. The novel tetramine 1,2-bis(4-(3,5-diaminobenzoic acid phenyl ester))carborane (CBNH) was synthesized and characterized firstly. Then, it was used in the preparation of two kinds of branched imide oligomers via the method of thermal imidization. The cure behavior of the obtained phenylethynyl-terminated oligomers was investigated by differential scanning calorimetry. The effect of carborane substituent on the thermal properties of PIs was studied by comparing with a similar structure without the carborane group. The thermal properties of PIs and carbon fiber/PI composites were investigated by thermal gravimetric analysis and dynamic mechanical analysis, respectively. Because of the introduction of high steric hindrance of carborane structure, the resulting thermosets and carbon fiber/PI composites had excellent thermal property with a high char yield at 800°C (>66.5%) and a high glass transition temperature (up to 500°C), respectively.

Colloidal Process of Magnesia-Carbon Refractory and Its Sintering Characteristic

Carbon-containing refractories are widely used in metallurgical industry due to their excellent thermal property and resistance to corrosion by molten iron. In the present work, slip casting colloidal process, which is used to fabricate high performance structural ceramics, has been introduced into the preparation for magnesia-carbon refractory with selection of suitable dispersant. The results indicated that the curve of zeta-potential of magnesia was similar with that of carbon just containing dispersant and the homogenized mixtures were attained under a controlling of low pH value. Three kinds of preparing routes for green bodies were designed, and all of the final densities and the resultant hardness of sintered bodies using colloidal process were superior to these of the specimen using conventional dry pressing, whereas its high green density can be plausibly observed in dry pressing body because of high compaction pressure used.