Xinwei Chen

Macro to Micro Porous Ceramic and Carbon Media: Philosophy of Design and Fabrication Xinwei Chen

The framed chemical and thermal stability of inorganic materials propel them to be one of the most appealing classes of advanced separation materials in recent times. This book focuses on implanting the desired porous architectures in inorganic media tailored for different separation purposes through structural design and fabrication at the molecular level. The work resulted in dramatic improvements on some of the key features of current inorganic membrane technologies. Molecular shaping forces released from polymerization or controlled thermal degradation was utilized to fabricate macro- and micro-channels in ceramic membranes, capable of deploying as a filter or a support for catalyst or gas separation layer. Incorporation of carbon network by entangling nano-tubes in the pore channels further expands the possibilities for organic separation in water purification (e.g. oily water) for this membrane. A parallel accomplishment is the development of an alternative fabrication pathway of asymmetric carbon membrane, which uses conjugated polymer, e.g. pyrrole and its derivatives, as precursor. A new insight in correlating polymer structure with pyrolysis chemistry was demonstrated.