Characteristics of Alumina Membranes Prepared From Different Metal-Organic Compounds

Abstract Aluminum tri-sec-butoxide (ALTSB), aluminum ethoxide (ALET) and aluminum isopropoxide (ALISP) were used to prepare defect free, meso-porous membrane following dip-coating, drying and sintering. The membrane contained pores larger than 2 nm with either cylindrical pores open at both ends or ink bottle shape. Although ALISP suspension exhibited smaller particle size than ALTSB, both precursors produced membranes that exhibited similar pore size and pore size distribution pattern after the membranes were sintered. ALTSB produced membrane that exhibited the highest surface area. ALET membrane exhibited the largest pore size, broadest pore size distribution and smallest surface area at all calcination temperatures. Keywords: condensationhydrolysismembranepermeabilitysol-gel Acknowledgments This research was supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (2010-0023307).