Shrinkable Inorganic Support for Porous Monoliths
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for creating a liquid-tight contact between porous monolithic materials and their supporting structures in applications like chromatography and catalysis often result in excessive leakage due to shrinkage issues, which affects the performance and efficiency of these processes.
Innovation Solution
An inorganic shrinkable support made from materials like glass or ceramic is applied to the exterior surface of porous monolithic materials, heated to form a liquid-tight contact without damaging the porosity, ensuring confined fluid flow and improved performance in separation, catalysis, and filtration.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If a rigid support material is used to contain the porous monolith, then the support provides structural strength and protection, but gaps appear at the inside wall after manufacturing causing excessive leakage
Solution Approach 1:
The support material transitions from a rigid state during assembly to a shrinkable state during heating, changing its dimensional parameters to achieve intimate contact with the porous monolith while maintaining structural integrity
Solution Approach 2:
The support structure is designed to be dynamically adjustable through thermal processing, allowing it to contract and adapt its shape to match the porous monolith surface, transforming from a fixed rigid structure to a conforming contact structure
2Temperature
If high-temperature processing is used to manufacture glass or ceramic structures, then thermal and chemical resistance is achieved, but significant shrinkage of the porous material occurs causing gaps
Solution Approach 1:
The porous monolith is positioned within the support structure before the final high-temperature processing step, allowing the support to shrink onto the monolith during heating and maintain precise contact throughout the manufacturing process
Solution Approach 2:
The support structure is designed with preliminary shrinkage compensation, where the initial dimensions are intentionally set to account for expected shrinkage during heating, ensuring that the final dimensions achieve the desired intimate contact
3Reliability
If polymer shrinkable support is used to provide close contact, then leakage is reduced, but thermal and chemical resistance is insufficient for many applications
Solution Approach 1:
The support structure combines polymer materials with shrinkage capability and inorganic materials with thermal and chemical resistance, creating a composite that achieves both intimate contact through shrinkage and suitability for high-temperature and chemically aggressive applications
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach provides superior chromatographic efficiency, reduced peak broadening, and enhanced separation performance while maintaining the porosity and mechanical strength of the monolithic materials, making the process more cost-effective and reproducible.
Implementation Method 1
heating the shrinkable support onto the exterior surface of the porous monolithic material
Data Source
AI summary
Articles of manufacture and devices and methods of forming and using the same are provided, wherein the article comprises a porous inorganic substrate contained in or bounded by a support made from an inorganic material are provided, wherein said porous substrate and support are heated to a temperature effective to shrink the support onto the porous substrate such that liquid tight contact is formed between the porous substrate and the support. In a preferred aspect, the porous inorganic substrate has a porosity of at least 5%, and is a porous monolith formed using a sol-gel method. The articles thus formed provide a confined fluid flow through the porous substrate, providing superior performance in separations, catalysis, filtration, and the like.