Development of a H2-permeable Pd60Cu40-based composite membrane using a reverse build-up method

Abstract A new reverse build-up method is developed to fabricate an economical H2-permeable composite membrane. Sputtering and electroplating are used for the formation of a membrane comprised of a 3.7-μm-thick Pd60Cu40 (wt.%) alloy layer and a 13-μm-thick porous Ni support layer, respectively. The H2-permeation measurements are performed under the flow of a gaseous mixture of H2 and He at 300–320 °C and 50–100 kPa of H2 partial pressure. The H2/He selectivity values exceed 300. The activation energy at 300–320 °C is 10.9 kJ mol−1. The H2 permeability of the membrane is 1.25 × 10−8 mol m−1 s−1 Pa−0.5 at 320 °C after 448 h. The estimated Pd cost of the proposed membrane is approximately 1/8 of the cost for a pure Pd60Cu40 membrane. This study demonstrates that the proposed method allows the facile production of low-cost, Pd-based membranes for H2 separation.