Physisorption Studies

One of the most important variables for describing the physics of adsorbed films is the coverage. To determine its absolute value to high precision is extremely difficult, whereas relative values can be measured much more accurately. The most frequently used method is to record an adsorption isotherm. It consists of introducing known amounts of gas into the sample cell filled with the substrate and measuring the resulting equilibrium vapor pressures at constant temperature. In the early days of physisorption studies... 

Although the H-metal bond is electronic in nature, a thermodynamic description of some adsorption properties is adequate. The relevant thermodynamics, with emphasis on surface problems, can be found, for example, in Ref [62]. A weak van der Waals attraction is the origin of the physisorption of molecular H2 [63, 64]. Accordingly, heats of physisorption are very small (>—5 kj (mol H) i), and experimental physisorption studies have to be performed at low temperatures. The growing interest in physisorption has been stimulated by the successfiil use of... 

FIGURE 3.42 PSDs measured by Suzuki et al. (2011) (a) and Soboleva et al. (2011) (b) using nitrogen physisorption studies and BET analysis. The proposed parameterizations of the experimental PSDs distinguish hydrophilic (bimodal distribution function) and hydrophobic (monomodal distribution function with peak at 35 nm) porosities. 

Infrared Spectroscopy. The infrared spectroscopy of adsorbates has been studied for many years, especially for chemisorbed species (see Section XVIII-2C). In the case of physisorption, where the molecule remains intact, one is interested in how the molecular symmetry is altered on adsorption. Perhaps the conceptually simplest case is that of H2 on NaCl(lOO). Being homo-polar, Ha by itself has no allowed vibrational absorption (except for some weak collision-induced transitions) but when adsorbed, the reduced symmetry allows a vibrational spectrum to be observed. Fig. XVII-16 shows the infrared spectrum at 30 K for various degrees of monolayer coverage [96] (the adsorption is Langmuirian with half-coverage at about 10 atm). The bands labeled sf are for transitions of H2 on a smooth face and are from the 7 = 0 and J = 1 rotational states Q /fR) is assigned as a combination band. The bands labeled... 

Adsorbates can physisorb onto a surface into a shallow potential well, typically 0.25 eV or less [25]. In physisorption, or physical adsorption, the electronic structure of the system is barely perturbed by the interaction, and the physisorbed species are held onto a surface by weak van der Waals forces. This attractive force is due to charge fiuctuations in the surface and adsorbed molecules, such as mutually induced dipole moments. Because of the weak nature of this interaction, the equilibrium distance at which physisorbed molecules reside above a surface is relatively large, of the order of 3 A or so. Physisorbed species can be induced to remain adsorbed for a long period of time if the sample temperature is held sufficiently low. Thus, most studies of physisorption are carried out with the sample cooled by liquid nitrogen or helium. 

The hydrophobic character exhibited by dehydroxylated silica is not shared by the metal oxides on which detailed adsorption studies have been made, in particular the oxides of Al, Cr, Fe, Mg, Ti and Zn. With these oxides, the progressive removal of chemisorbed water leads to an increase, rather than a decrease, in the affinity for water. In recent years much attention has been devoted, notably by use of spectroscopic and adsorption techniques, to the elucidation of the mechanism of the physisorption and chemisorption of water by those oxides the following brief account brings out some of the salient features. 

PDMS based siloxane polymers wet and spread easily on most surfaces as their surface tensions are less than the critical surface tensions of most substrates. This thermodynamically driven property ensures that surface irregularities and pores are filled with adhesive, giving an interfacial phase that is continuous and without voids. The gas permeability of the silicone will allow any gases trapped at the interface to be displaced. Thus, maximum van der Waals and London dispersion intermolecular interactions are obtained at the silicone-substrate interface. It must be noted that suitable liquids reaching the adhesive-substrate interface would immediately interfere with these intermolecular interactions and displace the adhesive from the surface. For example, a study that involved curing a one-part alkoxy terminated silicone adhesive against a wafer of alumina, has shown that water will theoretically displace the cured silicone from the surface of the wafer if physisorption was the sole interaction between the surfaces [38]. Moreover, all these low energy bonds would be thermally sensitive and reversible. 

As noted before, thin film lubrication (TFL) is a transition lubrication state between the elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) and the boundary lubrication (BL). It is widely accepted that in addition to piezo-viscous effect and solid elastic deformation, EHL is featured with viscous fluid films and it is based upon a continuum mechanism. Boundary lubrication, however, featured with adsorption films, is either due to physisorption or chemisorption, and it is based on surface physical/chemical properties [14]. It will be of great importance to bridge the gap between EHL and BL regarding the work mechanism and study methods, by considering TFL as a specihc lubrication state. In TFL modeling, the microstructure of the fluids and the surface effects are two major factors to be taken into consideration. 

The chemistry of superheavy elements has made some considerable progress in the last decade [457]. As the recently synthesized elements with nuclear charge 112 (eka-Hg), 114 (eka-Pb) and 118 (eka-Rn) are predicted to be chemically quite inert [458], experiments on these elements focus on adsorption studies on metal surfaces like gold [459]. DFT calculations predict that the equilibrium adsorption temperature for element 112 is predicted 100 °C below that of Hg, and the reactivity of element 112 is expected to be somewhere between those of Hg and Rn [460, 461]. This is somewhat in contradiction to recent experiments [459], and DFT may not be able to simulate accurately the physisorption of element 112 on gold. More accurate wavefunction based methods are needed to clarify this situation. Similar experiments are planned for element 114. 

Two characterization techniques will be discussed in this chapter, viz. physisorption and chemisorption. Physisorption mainly yields information on catalyst texture and morphology, whereas chemisorption studies potentially give information regarding the active catalyst sites. 

Figure 17.4 Cartoon representation of strategies for studying and exploiting enzymes on electrodes that have been used in electrocatalysis for fuel cells, (a) Attachment or physisorption of an enzyme on an electrode such that redox centers in the protein are in direct electronic contact with the surface, (b) Specific attachment of an enzyme to an electrode modified with a substrate, cofactor, or analog that contacts the protein close to a redox center. Examples include attachment of the modifier via a conductive linker, (c) Entrapment of an enzyme within a polymer containing redox mediator molecules that transfer electrons to/from centers in the protein, (d) Attachment of an enzyme onto carbon nanotubes prepared on an electrode, giving a large surface area conducting network with direct electron transfer to each enzyme molecule.

Cr-ZSM-5 catalysts prepared by solid-state reaction from different chromium precursors (acetate, chloride, nitrate, sulphate and ammonium dichromate) were studied in the selective ammoxidation of ethylene to acetonitrile. Cr-ZSM-5 catalysts were characterized by chemical analysis, X-ray powder diffraction, FTIR (1500-400 cm 1), N2 physisorption (BET), 27A1 MAS NMR, UV-Visible spectroscopy, NH3-TPD and H2-TPR. For all samples, UV-Visible spectroscopy and H2-TPR results confirmed that both Cr(VI) ions and Cr(III) oxide coexist. TPD of ammonia showed that from the chromium incorporation, it results strong Lewis acid sites formation at the detriment of the initial Bronsted acid sites. The catalyst issued from chromium chloride showed higher activity and selectivity toward acetonitrile. This activity can be assigned to the nature of chromium species formed using this precursor. In general, C r6+ species seem to play a key role in the ammoxidation reaction but Cr203 oxide enhances the deep oxidation. 

The interaction between drug compounds and excipients, as these influence drug dissolution, can be successfully studied by means of reflectance spectroscopy. In one study concerning probucol and indomethacin, it was deduced that hydrogen bonding and van der Waals forces determined the physisorption between the active and the excipients in several model formulations [36]. Chemisorption forces were found to play only minor roles in these interactions. These studies indicated that surface catalytic effects could be important during the selection of formulation excipients. 

Several authors reporting cluster ion reactions use the terms physisorption and chemisorption for reaction types 2 and 3, respectively (198,225). The reactions of the Nb clusters with several hydrocarbons have been studied but the reactions... 

Physisorption (i.e., adsorption of hydrogen) of molecular hydrogen by weak van der Waals forces to the inner surface of a highly porous material. Adsorption has been studied on various nanomaterials, e.g., nanocarbons, metal organic frameworks and polymers. 

L. Zhou, Y. P. Zhou, and Y. Sun, Studies on the mechanism and capacity of hydrogen uptake by physisorption-based materials, Int. J. Hydrogen Energy, 31, 259-264 (2006). 

Concurrent stream of the development of nanomaterials for solid-state hydrogen storage comes from century-old studies of porous materials for absorption of gasses, among them porous carbon phases, better known as activated carbon. Absorption of gases in those materials follows different principles from just discussed absorption in metals. Instead of chemisorption of gas into the crystalline structure of metals, it undergoes physisorption on crystalline surfaces and in the porous structure formed by crystals. The gases have also been known to be phy-sisorbed on fine carbon fibers. 

Early studies of the interaction of lr4(CO)i2 with a silica surface indicate that physisorption of the cluster takes place. Although the cluster can sublime during thermal treatments after impregnation [198], the loss of metal carbonyl can be avoided by mild thermal treatments that produce a redispersion of the physisorbed lr4(CO)i2 onto the silica surface [199]. An XPS and FTIR study of the evolution of physisorbed lr4(CO)i2 under different conditions pointed to the formation of metallic particles by mild thermal decomposition under Ar or H2, with the particle size increasing with increasing temperature [200]. 

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