日本ゼオライト学会　刊行物 Publication of Japan Zeolite Association

Pure silica MFI-type zeolite (called silicalite-1) membranes have attracted interest owing to their hydrophobicity, uniform pore structure, high thermal stability, and potential for applications such as separation of organic molecules from organic/water mixtures. It is known that the properties of porous supports used for the preparation of zeolite membrane including silicalite-1 membranes greatly influence membrane separation performance, and caused insufficient manifesting of the separation characteristics of zeolite itself. Therefore several methods for seeding and membrane preparation methods have been reported. However, a simple and economical method with high reproducibility has not to be developed, therefore, there are still many problems for industrial applications. In this review, we focus on the influence of the support properties on the preparation of silicalite-1 membrane, and explained about the problems of zeolite membrane synthesis and novel approaches for industrial application from our study on the preparation of the silicalite-1 membrane on silica support.