Diffusion process and apparatus

Claim 1

AN IMPROVED DIFFERENTIAL PERMEATION PROCESS FOR SEPARATING GASES WHICH COMPRISES IN COMBINATION THE FOLLOWING STEPS; BRINGING AN INITIAL GAS MIXTURE CONTAINING ONE GAS SELECTED FROM THE GROUP CONSISTING OF HELIUM, HYDROGEN, OXYGEN, NITROGEN, CARBON DIOXIDE, NITROUS OXIDE, AND ARGON; AND AT LEAST ONE OTHER GAS OF LARGER MOLECULE SIZE, INTO CONTACT WITH ONE SURFACE OF A PERMEABLE MEMBRANE STRUCTURE AT A GIVEN PRESSURE, CAUSING A PORTION OF SAID MIXTURE TO PERMEATE THROUGH SAID MEMBRANE STRUCTURE, COLLECTING AT ANOTHER SURFACE OF SAID MEMBRANE STRUCTURE AT A LOWER PRESSURE A PERMEATED MIXTURE CORRESPONDING GENERALLY TO SAID INITIAL GAS MIXTURE, AND REMOVING THE PERMEATED MIXTURE FROM SAID ANOTHER SURFACE, WHILE MAINTAINING SAID MEMBRANE STRUCTURE AS A NON-POROUS THREE-DIMENSIONAL MASS OF A POLYMERIC COMPOSITION COMPRISING REPEATING UNITS OF PERFLUORO-(2-METHYLENE-4METHYL-1,3-DIOXOLANE) AND FROM 0% TO ABOUT 90% BY WEIGHT FREE-RADICAL, POLYMERIZABLE, UNSATURATED, HALOGENATED, HYDROCARBON REPEATING UNITS, THROUGH WHICH SAID ONE GAS PERMEATES AT A SIGNIFICANTLY GREATER RATE THAN THE OTHER COMPONENTS OF SAID INITIAL MIXTURE, WITH SAID COMPOSITION SAID HYDROCARBON REPEATING UNITS BEING TETRAFLUOROETHYLENE UNITS.