US 11,986,774 B1
Robust membrane supporting structures
Caroline Rempe, Albuquerque, NM (US); Ying-Bing Jiang, Woodland, CA (US); Yongqian Gao, Albuquerque, NM (US); and Jimin Guo, Los Angeles, CA (US)
Assigned to Memzyme, LLC, Albuquerque, NM (US)
Filed by Memzyme, LLC, Albuquerque, NM (US)
Filed on Mar. 17, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/697,230.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/161,992, filed on Mar. 17, 2021.
Int. Cl. B01D 53/22 (2006.01); B01D 67/00 (2006.01); B01D 69/02 (2006.01); B01D 69/04 (2006.01); B01D 71/02 (2006.01)
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
OG exemplary drawing
 
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.