Experimental studies in relation to a new theoretical description of the permeation of dilute adsorbable gases through porous membranes

Precise data on the permeability of porous silica and alumina membranes to dilute gases are reported as a function of the nature of the gas and of temperature. It is shown that the unusual permeability behaviour previously observed only in “Vycor” porous glass at high temperatures [8-10] is a more general phenomenon. These results cannot be accounted for by conventional “surface diffusion” theory [1, 2] even qualitatively, but can be understood on the basis of recent, more advanced, theoretical treatments [3, 4, 7]. The present data provide an experimental test (not possible on the basis of previous data) of the general correlation between permeability and extent of sorption (including both the nature of the gas and temperature) predicted by the new theoretical approach, which is shown to be remarkably successful. Differences in the detailed permeability behaviour noted here, and in the previous porous glass study [8-10], are also satisfactorily accounted for in terms of differences in the mean effective pore size of the respective membranes.