Clustering of water molecules in ultramicroporous carbon: In-situ small-angle neutron scattering

J. Bahadur, C. I. Contescu, D. K. Rai, N. C. Gallego, Y. B. Melnichenko

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39 Scopus citations

Abstract

The adsorption of water is central to most of the applications of microporous carbon as adsorbent material. We report early kinetics of water adsorption in ultramicroporous carbon using in-situ small-angle neutron scattering. It is observed that adsorption of water occurs via cluster formation. Interestingly, the cluster size remains constant throughout the adsorption process whereas the number density of clusters increases with time. The role of surface chemistry of microporous carbon on the early kinetics of adsorption process was also investigated. The present study provides direct experimental evidence for cluster assisted adsorption of water molecules in microporous carbon (Do-Do model).

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)681-688
Number of pages8
JournalCarbon
Volume111
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 1 2017

Funding

The research at Oak Ridge National Laboratory's (ORNL) High Flux Isotope Reactor was sponsored by the Scientific User Facilities Division , Office of Basic Energy Sciences , U.S. Department of Energy under Contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 and by ORNL Laboratory-Directed Research and Development (LDRD) program. This research was supported in part by the ORNL Postdoctoral Research Associates Program , administered jointly by the ORNL and the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education . CIC and NCG acknowledge support from the Materials Science and Engineering Division , Office of Basic Energy Sciences , U.S. Department of Energy under Contract DE-AC05-00OR22725. DKR acknowledges support by the Laboratory-Directed Research and Development Program of Oak Ridge National Laboratory .

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