Engineering Research Equipment: Equipment for Pore Structure Characterization of Solids in Chemical Reaction Engineering Studies

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Abstract - Varma - 9412018 This equipment grant is to provide funds for the purchase of an automated system for the characterization of the internal structure of solid materials involved in a wide variety of chemical reactions. These materials include adsorbents, catalysts and catalyst supports, and advanced materials such as ceramic oxides and nitrides, and intermetallic compounds. The equipment is an Autosorb-1 unit, a volumetric gas sorption measurement system with krypton and micropore options (Kr/MP), and required accessories consisting primarily of a Macintosh computer and printer. The unit is manufactured by Quantachrome Corporation and features one analysis station and two degassing stations. Any non-corrosive gas can be used as the adsorbate, nitrogen being a typical choice. The use of krypton, rather than nitrogen, for samples having low surface area, and the characterization of microporous samples, require a turbomolecular pump which is available as part of the Kr/MP accessory. The Principal Investigator is conducting research in catalysis and reaction engineering, synthesis of advanced materials, and pollution abatement. Research projects in each of these areas involve studies of samples with different porous and particulate microstructures. The pore structure is one important characteristic in determining the performance of materials, and therefore it is essential to characterize this property, in some cases for a large number of samples. In several of the projects, the surface area is one of the few parameters which can be measured in order to quantify the effect of system variables. In certain cases, measuments of surface area and pore size distribution are required in order to monitor the evolution of the pore structure with increasing extent of reaction. These measurements are also important in confirming model hypotheses regarding alternative reaction pathways, e.g., during materials synthesis, or during catalytic reactions. The equipment has been chosen specif ically to accommodate the wide range of materials being studied in the projects.