Chalcogenide aerogels as sorbents for noble gases (Xe, Kr)

Kota S. Subrahmanyam, Ioannis Spanopoulos, Jaehun Chun, Brian J. Riley, Praveen K. Thallapally, Pantelis N. Trikalitis, Mercouri G. Kanatzidis*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

15 Scopus citations

Abstract

High-surface-area molybdenum sulfide (MoSx) and antimony sulfide (SbSx) chalcogels were studied for Xe/Kr gas separation. The intrinsic soft Lewis basic character of the chalcogel framework is a unique property among the large family of porous materials and lends itself to a potential new approach toward the selective separation of Xe over Kr. Among these chalcogels, MoSx shows the highest Xe and Kr uptake, reaching 0.69 mmol g-1 (1.05 mmol cm-3) and 0.28 mmol g-1 (0.42 mmol cm-3) respectively, at 273 K and 1 bar. The corresponding isosteric heat of adsorption at zero coverage (Qst 0) is 22.8 and 18.6 kJ mol-1 and both are the highest among the selected chalcogels. The IAST (10:90) Xe/Kr selectivity at 273 K for MoSx is 6.0, whereas for SbSx chalcogels, it varies in the range 2.0-2.8. The higher formal charge of molybdenum, Mo4+, in MoSx versus that of antimony, Sb3+, in SbSx coupled with its larger atomic size could induce higher polarizability in the MoSx framework and therefore higher Xe/Kr selectivity.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)33389-33394
Number of pages6
JournalACS Applied Materials and Interfaces
Volume9
Issue number39
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 4 2017

Keywords

  • Aerogels
  • Chalcogenide
  • Nuclear remediation
  • Porous materials

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Materials Science(all)

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