Patent ID: 7531215

Claim:
A method of forming a hydrogen transport membrane to separate hydrogen from a hydrogen containing feed, said method comprising: forming a porous ceramic support having opposed surfaces; producing isolated deposits of a metal on one of the opposed surfaces, the isolated deposits of the metal bridging pores within the porous ceramic support without penetrating the pores and without bridging regions of the one of the opposed surfaces defined between the pores; the isolated deposits of the metal consisting of palladium or a palladium alloy or a component of the palladium alloy and being produced by an electroless plating process comprising: cleaning, activating and sensitizing the one of the opposed surfaces; contacting the porous ceramic support with a precipitating agent on the other of the opposed surfaces so that said precipitating agent is controlled to fill the pores but does not seep out of the pores onto the regions of the one of the opposed surfaces defined between the pores; and contacting the one of the opposed surfaces with a salt solution containing a salt of the metal, while the precipitating agent is controlled to fill the pores but does not seep out of the pores onto the regions of the one of the opposed surfaces defined between the pores, so that said metal precipitates and produces the isolated deposits of the metal; and forming a dense layer of the palladium or the palladium alloy on the one of the opposed surfaces of the porous ceramic support after having formed the isolated deposits of the metal.