High-performance zeolite NaA membranes on polymer-zeolite composite hollow fiber supports

We report a new strategy: use of polymer-zeolite composite hollow fibers as supports. Zeolite membranes with high performance (flux = 8.0-9.0 kg m(-2) h(-1), alpha >10 000) can be synthesized directly on polymer-zeolite composite hollow fiber supports by a single in situ hydrothermal crystallization. The zeolite crystals imbedded in the polymer hollow fiber serve as seeds for the zeolite membrane growth, and they also "anchor" the zeolite membrane to the support to increase the adhesion of the zeolite membrane. Therefore, a separate and often complex seeding process can be omitted. A very uniform crystal distribution can be obtained easily, so continuous zeolite membranes can be prepared with high reproducibility. These composite hollow fibers can be produced simply by blending zeolite crystals into the polymer feed before the hollow fiber extrusion and thus are expected to be inexpensive.