Composite palladium membranes are particularly useful in hydrogen separation because of their perfect permeability and permselectivity toward hydrogen, and porous ceramics are their most common substrate materials. High working temperatures favor membrane output, but create difficulties with membrane sealing and assembling. This work suggests a kind of facile and effective connector with graphite as the sealing material. The connector is resistant to temperature cycling, and the leakage kinetics was discussed. The possible graphite hydrogenation and the consequent membrane contamination at high temperature were also investigated. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.