Surface analyzer for characterizing surface area and pore size distribution of porous materials

吸附剂通常用于空气和水质量控制以及气体分离和净化。吸附剂吸附污染物和杂质的能力和动力学取决于吸附剂的比表面积、孔体积和孔径分布。因此，在开发和测试新型吸附剂时，这些微观结构特性非常重要。表面分析仪使用气体的物理吸附来确定材料的比表面积、孔体积和孔径分布。该仪器的多功能性允许表征各种各样的多孔材料和吸附剂，如活性炭，焦炭，煤，混凝土，催化剂，碳纳米管，沸石和聚合物，因此该仪器将是一个非常有用的工具，为我们的团队以及研究人员在许多工程和科学学科的阿尔伯塔大学。目前需要表面分析仪的研究项目包括：1）开发新型吸附剂，用于控制有机蒸汽排放，天然气净化和碳捕获; 2）将油砂焦炭转化为用于从油砂工艺影响的尾矿水中除去环烷酸的有用吸附剂，3）研究燃煤电厂粉煤灰中汞吸附剂对混凝土性能的影响。这些研究项目对加拿大具有战略重要性，因为它们有助于减少油砂开发等工业活动对水和空气质量的影响，通过更节能的天然气净化提供更低的温室气体排放，并为燃煤发电厂的飞灰提供安全处置。所要求的表面分析仪对于继续进行这些研究项目至关重要，因为它将提供确定吸附和再生过程性能所需的输入参数，并将允许评估吸附剂的活化或改性对其结构和吸附性能的有效性，以及将吸附剂用于空气和水处理应用的潜力。还需要了解发生在材料界面的基本表面过程，包括吸附剂，聚合物和纳米材料。

Adsorbents are commonly used in air and water quality control as well as in gas separation and purification. The capacity and kinetics of an adsorbent to adsorb pollutants and impurities depend on the specific surface area, pore volume, and pore size distribution of the adsorbent. Hence the importance of these microstructural properties when developing and testing novel adsorbents. A Surface Analyzer uses physical adsorption of gases to determine specific surface area, pore volume, and pore size distribution of materials. The instrument's versatility allows for characterizing a wide variety of porous materials and adsorbents such as, activated carbon, coke, coal, concrete, catalysts, carbon nanotubes, zeolites, and polymers, hence the instrument will be an extremely useful tool for our groups as well as to researchers in many engineering and science disciplines at the University of Alberta. Examples of current research projects that necessitate the Surface Analyzer include: 1) developing novel adsorbents for control of organic vapour emissions, purification of natural gas, and carbon capture; 2) converting oil sands coke into a useful adsorbent for the removal of Naphthenic Acids from oil sands process affected tailings water, and 3) characterising the effect of mercury adsorbents in coal-fired power plants fly ash on properties of concrete. These research projects are of strategic importance to Canada because they help reducing the water and air quality impacts of industrial activities such as the oil sands development, provide lower greenhouse gas emissions through more energy efficient natural gas purification, as well as provide a safe disposal for coal-fired power plants fly ash. The requested Surface Analyzer is essential to proceed with these research projects as it will provide input parameters that are required for determining the performance of adsorption and regeneration processes and will allow assessing the effectiveness of the activation or modification of the adsorbent on its structural and adsorption properties, and the potential for using the adsorbent for air and water treatment applications. It is also needed to understand the fundamental surface processes occurring at material interfaces including adsorbents, polymers, and nanomaterials.