Alumina tubes suitable for the support of gas separation membranes have been prepared by the slipcasting technique. These supports have the average pore size of 0.1 ${mu}{ extrm}{m}$ within the narrow distribution. The sol-gel dipcoating process of nanoparticulate sols is very sensitive to microstructure of the support, and the coating on the inside surface of the tube is found to be more successful than on the outside surface. Nanoparticulate silica sols (0.82 mol/ι) have been synthesized by an interfacial hydrolysis reaction between TEOS and high alkaline water. When coating an alumina tube with these sols, the minimum limits of the particle size and the aging time required for forming the coated gel layer at the given pH are provided. It is optimum to coat the support with less concentrated sols stabilized through aging for the appropriate time (more than 22 days) at the lower pH (pH 2.0) for producing a reproducible crack free thin film coating in composite membranes.