CPC B01D 67/0048 (2013.01) [B01D 53/228 (2013.01); B01D 69/02 (2013.01); B01D 69/04 (2013.01); B01D 71/02 (2013.01); B01D 2053/223 (2013.01); B01D 2323/286 (2013.01); B01D 2325/06 (2013.01)] | 10 Claims |
1. A method of fabricating a porous support for use as CO2 capturing membranes, comprising:
providing a porous support;
filling pores of the porous support with a second material, wherein the second material is softer than the porous support, and wherein the second material can be selectively removed from the porous support;
polishing a surface of the porous support that is filled with the second material;
coating a layer of sol-gel solution on the top surface of the porous support, wherein the sol-gel comprises surfactant, and the thickness of the layer is less than 1 micron;
allowing the sol-gel solution to become solidified;
removing the surfactant from the solidified sol-gel solution to generate nanopores, thereby forming a nanoporous layer on top of the porous support, wherein the size of the nanopores is determined by the molecular dimension of the surfactant; and
before or after or at the same time of removing the surfactant, removing the second material from the porous support to recover a porous feature of the porous support, thereby forming a structure with a thin nanoporous layer standing on the top of the porous support without having the nanoporous layer penetrating into the pores of the porous support.
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