Sorbent materials are candidates for many industrial sustainable development applications, including hydrogen and methane storage, gas separation, catalysis, methane conversion, and natural gas purification. However, reproducible sorption properties measurements are difficult to obtain due to slight variations in sample preparation and/or measurement protocols. NIST researchers, with support from the US Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), recently built a state-of-the-art Facility for Adsorbent Characterization and Testing (FACT). The new facility is furnished with several instruments for characterizing pore architecture and evaluating fundamental sorption properties of materials upon exposure to single or multi-component gases. FACT will serve the sorbent materials research community by providing impartial testing and characterization of material sorption properties, establishing testing procedures, and disseminating sorbent material property data and measurement "best practices." Specific research activities include utilization of state-of-the-art techniques and establishing protocols for measuring reliable high pressure gas sorption isotherms in support of materials development for carbon capture and natural gas purification. The materials to be used in this project may be porous solids, powders, or membranes.

 

References

Espinal L, Poster DL, Wong-Ng W, Allen AJ, Green ML: Environmental Science and Technology 47: 11960, 2013

Espinal L, Wong-Ng W, Kaduk JA, Allen AJ, et al: Journal of the American Chemical Society 134(18): 7944, 2012

 

key words

Gas separations; Carbon capture materials; Catalysis; Natural gas purification; Hydrogen and methane storage; Methane conversion; Adsorbents; Membranes; Porous materials;

Citizenship:  Open to U.S. citizens

Level:  Open to Postdoctoral applicants