Increasing hydrogen energy utilization has greatly stimulated the development of the hydrogen-permeable palladium membrane, which is comprised of a thin layer of palladium or palladium alloy on a porous substrate. This work chose the low-cost macroporous Al(2)O(3) as the substrate material, and the surface modification was carried out with a conventional 2B pencil, the lead of which is composed of graphite and clay. Based on the modified substrate, a highly permeable and selective Pd/pencil/Al(2)O(3) composite membrane was successfully fabricated via electroless plating. The membrane was characterized by SEM (scanning electron microscopy), field-emission SEM and metallographic microscopy. The hydrogen flux and H(2)/N(2) selectivity of the membrane (with a palladium thickness of 5 mu m) under 1 bar at 723 K were 25 m(3)/(m(2) h) and 3700, respectively; the membrane was found to be stable during a time-on-stream of 330 h at 723 K. (C) 2010 Professor T. Nejat Veziroglu. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.