TY - JOUR
T1 - Rapid adsorption of alcohol biofuels by high surface area mesoporous carbons
AU - Levario, Thomas J.
AU - Dai, Mingzhi
AU - Yuan, Wei
AU - Vogt, Bryan D.
AU - Nielsen, David R.
N1 - Funding Information:
T.J.L. was supported by financial assistance from the US Department of Energy, Office of ARPA-E (Award No. DE-AR0000011). Facilities supported by the Center for Solid State Science were used for the characterization of materials. This work is partially supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. CBET-0746664 .
PY - 2012/1/15
Y1 - 2012/1/15
N2 - Surfactant templated mesoporous carbons were evaluated as biofuel adsorbents through characterization of equilibrium and kinetic behavior for both ethanol and n-butanol. Variations in synthetic conditions enabled facile tuning of specific surface area (500-1300 m2/g) and pore morphology (hexagonally packed cylindrical or BCC spherical pores). n-Butanol was more effectively adsorbed than ethanol for all mesoporous carbons, suggesting a mechanism of hydrophobic adsorption. The adsorbed alcohol capacity increased with elevated specific surface area of the adsorbents, irrespective of pore morphology. While adsorption capacity of these mesoporous carbons is comparable to commercially-available, hydrophobic polymer adsorbents of similar surface area, the pore morphology and structure of mesoporous carbons greatly influenced adsorption rates, enhancing them by up to 1-2 orders of magnitude over commercial polymer adsorbents. Multiple cycles of adsorbent regeneration did not impact the adsorption equilibrium or kinetics. The high chemical and thermal stability of mesoporous carbons provide potential significant advantages over other commonly examined biofuel adsorbents, such as polymers and zeolites.
AB - Surfactant templated mesoporous carbons were evaluated as biofuel adsorbents through characterization of equilibrium and kinetic behavior for both ethanol and n-butanol. Variations in synthetic conditions enabled facile tuning of specific surface area (500-1300 m2/g) and pore morphology (hexagonally packed cylindrical or BCC spherical pores). n-Butanol was more effectively adsorbed than ethanol for all mesoporous carbons, suggesting a mechanism of hydrophobic adsorption. The adsorbed alcohol capacity increased with elevated specific surface area of the adsorbents, irrespective of pore morphology. While adsorption capacity of these mesoporous carbons is comparable to commercially-available, hydrophobic polymer adsorbents of similar surface area, the pore morphology and structure of mesoporous carbons greatly influenced adsorption rates, enhancing them by up to 1-2 orders of magnitude over commercial polymer adsorbents. Multiple cycles of adsorbent regeneration did not impact the adsorption equilibrium or kinetics. The high chemical and thermal stability of mesoporous carbons provide potential significant advantages over other commonly examined biofuel adsorbents, such as polymers and zeolites.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.micromeso.2011.08.001
DO - 10.1016/j.micromeso.2011.08.001
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:80053565599
SN - 1387-1811
VL - 148
SP - 107
EP - 114
JO - Microporous and Mesoporous Materials
JF - Microporous and Mesoporous Materials
IS - 1
ER -