ABSTRACT
Nanoporous carbon membranes (NCMs) were first made in 1960s by pressing and molding graphitic powder into monolith. NCMs could be obtained by using a large variety of natural and synthetic products as starting materials. Synthetic precursors are featured with uniform texture and stable properties, allowing the preferential fabrication of NCMs without defects. The configurations of supported NCMs include plate, tube, hollow fiber, and spiral wound, while that of unsupported NCMs include plate, hollow fiber, and capillary. Unsupported plate NCMs are merely significant for academic research in the lab; they are usually simply prepared by the method of casting or solvent evaporation. Carbonization is the most important step for the evolution from carbonaceous starting materials to NCMs. The carbonization is mainly dependent on the following three ways: pyrolysis, chemical vapor deposition (CVD), and ion irradiation. Various coating technologies have been developed to form NCMs, including brush coating, spray coating dipcoating, drop coating, ultrasonic spray coating, CVD, and physical vapor deposition.
