Interlayer Resistance of a Bilayer Membrane to Gas Transport

To describe gas transport through a bilayer membrane with a thin selective layer on the surface of a highly permeable gutter layer, it is for the first time proposed to take into account the interlayer resistance arising at the boundary of two membrane layers and a model of gas transport through a bilayer membrane is developed. Analytical expressions for the permeability and selectivity of such a membrane are obtained taking into account this resistance. It is shown that interlayer resistance can noticeably affect the transport characteristics of the membrane. It is found that, even in the case of a low diffusion resistance to gas transport of the gutter layer, its sorption and kinetic parameters affect the permeability and selectivity of the membrane as a whole.