Design of silica networks for development of highly permeable hydrogen separation membranes with hydrothermal stability.

A sol-gel method was applied for the development of highly permeable hydrogen separation membranes using bis(triethoxysilyl)ethane (BTESE) as a silica precursor. Hybrid silica membranes showed quite high hydrogen permeance (1 x 10(-5) mol m(-2) s(-1) Pa(-1)) with a high H(2)-to-SF(6) selectivity of 1000 because of loose organic-inorganic silica networks. Hybrid silica membranes were found to show high hydrothermal stability due to the presence of Si-C-C-Si bonds in silica networks.