EEC-9528068 Noble This award provides funding for a "TIE" project involving two NSF Industry/University Cooperative Research Centers (I/UCRCs) - the Center for Separations Using Thin Films at the University of Colorado, Boulder and the Measurement and Control Engineering Center at the University of Tennessee. Zeolite membranes will be prepared and used to improve the ability to analyze multicomponent process streams by process mass spectrometry. Membranes will be used to induce component separation based on selective size, shape, or sorptive differences and/or distinctive time dependence based on relative permeation rates as an aid to mass spectral deconvolution. Membrane properties for optimum mass spectrometric response will be assessed. Membranes tailored to this response for a given application will be prepared at the Boulder Center and tested in Knoxville. Applications guidance for evolution of the combined technologies will be drawn from problems posed by industrial members of the Centers. Testing of derived methodologies in member installations will be included as a regular part of effectiveness testing.
