Inorganic membranes for gas separations

Inorganic membranes have outstanding thermal, chemical, and mechanical robustness over polymeric counterparts, and are playing increasingly important roles across a broad spectrum of applications, particularly gas separations that can be further combined with diverse catalytic reactions. In the last several decades, fast and significant progresses have been achieved regarding membrane material design and development, membrane fabricating technology, membrane microstructure control, and optimization, as well as theories interpreting gas transport through inorganic membranes. On the other hand, it is becoming more important to disseminate these achievements toward audiences who are interested in inorganic membranes for gas separations but hindered by the lack of appropriate knowledge on fundamental aspects of this membrane technology. As a result, this chapter is devoted to meeting such demands from potential readers, which is also expected to guide them through further exploration of more professional knowledge from other monographs.