The study of Pd–Cu–Ni membrane deposited on porous nickel support with Cu-reflow technique

Fig. 1. SEM image of before Cu-reflow. Pd–Cu–Ni ternary alloyed dense film was deposited on the porous nickel support using sputtering improved by copper reflow technique. Cupper reflow was good enough technique to remove the defects and delamination on the membrane surface. A Pd–Cu–Ni ternary alloyed film as thin as 4 mm was deposited on nickel porous support without support pretreatment because of very small and uniform pore size distribution. During the stability test with mixture gas of 90% H2/10%N2 for 10 days, the membrane showed the complete hydrogen selectivity and no decrease of hydrogen flux. There is no sign the metallic interdiffusion between Pd–Cu–Ni alloyed film and nickel support. For the commercial using, the membrane module has to be developed also. Since porous nickel support has mechanical strength and thermal resistance, we hope that the developed membrane has the merit of getting more readily sealed into a commercial unit.