Silica adsorptive properties

Adsorptive Properties. Substances such as silica gel and activated charcoal can be used to collect (adsorb) certain solids from solution. The adsorber bed may be discarded when depleted or recycled by washing and heating. 

The dried polyoxazoline-modified silica gel was immersed into distilled water. The adsorption property of the resulting gel was estimated by the water content. The water uptake was calculated from an expression of (W -W)jW, where Wis the weight of dried gel and W is the weight of water-absorbed gel. The modified gel showed a higher water-adsorption property than that of untreated silica gel, which absorbed 10.8 multiples of water. The water uptake of modified gel was up to 13.7 multiples of the weight of dried gel. Thus, silica gel has been made more hydrophilic by a polyoxazoline segment. 

Table 6. Preparation and water adsorption property of POZO modified silica gel...

These poly(2-alkyl-2-oxazoline) silane coupling agents were copolycondensed with tetraethoxysilane by acid-catalyst to produce poly(2-alkyl-2-oxazoline)-modified silica gel. The composite gel from 2-ethyl-2-oxazoline was also homogeneous and transparent glass. Poly(2-alkyl-2-oxazoline)-modified silica gels, especially gels based on poly(2-ethyl-2-oxazoline) absorbed water and also organic solvents such as DMF or alcohols as shown in Table 7. This result means that the obtained composite gel shows the amphiphilic adsorption property. 

The low silica zeolites represented by zeolites A and X are aluminum-saturated, have the highest cation concentration and give optimum adsorption properties in terms of capacity, pore size and three-dimensional channel systems. They represent highly heterogeneous surfaces with a strongly hydrophilic surface selectivity. The intermediate Si/Al zeolites (Si/Al of 2-5) consist of the natural zeohtes eri-onite, chabazite, clinoptilolite and mordenite, and the synthetic zeolites Y, mordenite, omega and L. These materials are still hydrophilic in this Si/Al range. 

The chemical composihons of the zeolites such as Si/Al ratio and the type of cation can significantly affect the performance of the zeolite/polymer mixed-matrix membranes. MiUer and coworkers discovered that low silica-to-alumina molar ratio non-zeolitic smaU-pore molecular sieves could be properly dispersed within a continuous polymer phase to form a mixed-matrix membrane without defects. The resulting mixed-matrix membranes exhibited more than 10% increase in selectivity relative to the corresponding pure polymer membranes for CO2/CH4, O2/N2 and CO2/N2 separations [48]. Recently, Li and coworkers proposed a new ion exchange treatment approach to change the physical and chemical adsorption properties of the penetrants in the zeolites that are used as the dispersed phase in the mixed-matrix membranes [56]. It was demonstrated that mixed-matrix membranes prepared from the AgA or CuA zeolite and polyethersulfone showed increased CO2/CH4 selectivity compared to the neat polyethersulfone membrane. They proposed that the selectivity enhancement is due to the reversible reaction between CO2 and the noble metal ions in zeolite A and the formation of a 7i-bonded complex. 

The Tenax-silica gel combination trap utilizes the adsorptive properties of two materials to provide a trap that effectively adsorbs and desorbs a wide variety of organic compounds. The small amount of OV-1 on glass wool at the trap inlet (Figure 2) is to insure that all the Tenax adsorbent is within the heated zone and is efficiently heated to the desorption temperature. A metal fitting at the trap inlet could act as a heat sink and create a cool spot on the Tenax if this spacer is not used. 

It is generally accepted that the only important polar adsoiption sites on the silica surface are the silanol functions, i.e., hydroxyl groups, that are attached to silicon atoms (2). They can interact with the sample molecules by hydrogen bonding and various physical observations ctAi be used to prove this statement. Complete dehydration of silica by beating, i.e., removal of all surface hydroxyl groups, yields a hydrophobia silica which no longer shows adsorption for unsaturated and polar molecules and is no more wetted by water (15). Chemical modification of the surface hydroxyls such as used in the preparation of chemically bonded phases also eliminates the selective adsorption properties of the silica. ... 

Polyzkov MV. Adsorption properties and structure of silica gel. Zhur Fiz Khim 1931 2 799-805. 

In the case of amines the type of interaction shown in Figure 15.9 may occur. The shorter the alkyl chain length on the silica gel surface the more likely it is that adsorption also plays a part in the extraction. It is possible to buy highly endcapped reverse-phase silica gels where most of the residual silanols have been blocked but it may be better to take advantage of the mixed lipophilic and adsorptive properties of reverse phases which have not been endcapped. 

Gao B, An F, Tiu K. Studies on Chelating Adsorption Properties of Novel Composite Material Polyethyleneimine/silica Gel for Heavy-metal Ions. Applied Surface Science 2006 253 1946-1952. 

TTigh silica zeolites attract great attention since they are characterized by relatively high thermal stability and considerable acid resistance. Physicochemical properties of high silica zeolites, despite a number of investigations, have not been sufficiently studied. The same is true for L- and clinoptilolite zeolite. The data on synthesis, structure, adsorption properties, decationization, dealuminization, adsorption heats, and other properties of the above-mentioned zeolites have been given (1-15). Results of studies of physicochemical properties of L zeolites and of natural and modified clinoptilolite are given here. 

Spherical particles in the micrometric size range of mesoporous MSU-X silica were obtained with nonionic PEO-based surfactant by a new, easy and highly reproducible synthesis pathway leading to Micelle Templated Structures (MTS) with large surface area and narrow pore size distribution. First results on their adsorption properties show that they could be used for HPLC applications. 

However, when small size molecules, which can freely diffuse either in Beta zeolite and MCM-41, are used a lower turnover is observed on Ti-MCM-41 catalysts compared to that obtained on Ti containing Beta zeolite [13]. This low activity can be attributed to that some of the Ti sites in MCM-41 type of catalysts are buried on the silica walls, being non-accessible to the reactants and also, to the very different adsorptive properties of Ti-MCM-41 and Ti-... 

The CeMCM-41 material studied had much higher quality than the corresponding MCM-41 sample synthesized under the same conditions. While both materials exhibited analogous adsorption properties with respect to nitrogen, their interaction with n-butylamine was different. Thermogravimetric analysis of w-butylamine thermodesorption showed that CeMCM-41 possessed medium and strong acid sites in contrast to the pure silica MCM-41, the acidity of which was negligible. Thus, incorporation of cerium to MCM-41 seems to improve its hydrothermal stability and enhance the adsorption and catalytic properties. 

C-155 and S-155 materials showed a sponge like structure as the microphotograph of figure 4-B, but when S-155 was submitted to methylene blue adsorption test it did not show adsorption properties C-155 material instead showed a high adsorption activity. The last observation demonstrates that carbon structure is the responsible of the adsorptive behaviour and that the silica structure in this case acts only as an inert skeleton, but at the same time, silica was the responsible of the expanded carbon network developed during the synthesis of the composite. 

We have an excellent activated carbon of fiber morphology, so called activated carbon fiber ACF[3]. This ACF has considerably uniform slit-shaped micropores without mesopores, showing characteristic adsorption properties. The pore size distribution of ACF is very narrow compared with that of traditional granular activated carbon. Then, ACF has an aspect similar to the regular mesoporous silica in particular in carbon science. Consequently, we can understand more an unresolved problem such as adsorption of supercritical gas using ACF as an microporous adsorbent. 

In our previous paper we have reported that silica MCM-41 exhibits a large amount of reversible adsorption, high thermal and hydrothermal stabilities, and little catalytic acidity and is an excellent adsorbent in PSA process for recovery of 2-propanol and toluene vapors [1]. Here we present the results of PSA of butanone on silica MCM-41 and discuss the effect of pretreatment temperatures on adsorption properties of MCM-41. 

Effective composite sol-gel adsorbents of water vapor can be prepared in a one-step procedure using ethyl silicate 40 as a cost-effective silica precursor. Adsorption properties exhibited by the materials thus obtained are comparable with those of the samples obtained from the more complex procedure developed previously which made use of tetraethoxysilane. 

Preliminary experiments indicate that water adsorption properties of these materials are equally attractive as those shown by the adsorbents obtained from the more complex and expensive procedures with TEOS as a silica precursor. 

To achieve a significant adsorptive capacity an adsorbent must have a high specific area, which implies a highly porous structure with very small micropores. Such microporous solids can be produced in several different ways. Adsorbents such as silica gel and activated alumina are made by precipitation of colloidal particles, followed by dehydration. Carbon adsorbents are prepared by controlled burn-out of carbonaceous materials such as coal, lignite, and coconut shells. The crystalline adsorbents (zeolite and zeolite analogues are different in that the dimensions of the micropores are determined by the crystal structure and there is therefore virtually no distribution of micropore size. Although structurally very different from the crystalline adsorbents, carbon molecular sieves also have a very narrow distribution of pore size. The adsorptive properties depend on the pore size and the pore size distribution as well as on the nature of the solid surface. 

Silicagel is also called silica or bare silica. Its adsorptive properties depend on the hydroxyl groups attached to surface silicon atoms. Silicagel has a maximum silanol density of 8.0 yumolcs/ m2. Many of these silanols are buried deep in the porous structure and are available only to the smallest analytes. Silanols are either isolated, geminal, or vicinal they can be distinguished by means of Si solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). The surface also contains siloxane bonds (Si-O-Si), which are considered hydrophobic. 

Separation of gas streams by adsorption is becoming increasingly popular as improved technology comes on the market. Some examples of commercially practiced adsorption processes are shown in Table 1. These processes take advantage of the selective adsorption properties of a number of microporous adsorbents, including activated carbon, silica, alumina, and various synthetic and natural zeolites. 

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