MCM-36 zeolites tailored with acidic ionic liquid to regulate adsorption properties of isobutane and 1-butene

Adsorption properties of an adsorbent or a catalyst towards adsorbates are crucial in the process of adsorption separation or catalytic reaction. Surface morphology and structure of adsorbents have a significant impact on the adsorption properties. In this study, a novel acidic ionic liquid, 1-butyl-3-(triethoxysilylpropyl)imidazolium hydrogen sulfate(i.e., [BTPIm][HSO_4]), was synthesized and subsequently grafted onto the MCM-36 zeolite for the regulation of its adsorption properties towards isobutane and 1-butene. The resultant [BTPIm][HSO_4]-immobilized MCM-36(i.e., MCM-36-IL) was characterized by FT-IR, XPS, XRD, SEM, TG/DTG and N_2 adsorption–desorption measurement. It was found that the specific surface area, micropore volume and mesopore volume of the MCM-36 support underwent a reduction upon the immobilization of ionic liquid,while the surface density of acid increased from 0.0014 to 0.0035 mmol·m^(-2). The adsorption capacity of isobutane and 1-butene on the MCM-36-IL was determined by a static volumetric method. Results demonstrated that the interaction between isobutane and MCM-36-IL was enhanced and the interaction between 1-butene and MCM-36-IL was reduced. As a result, a tunable adsorption ratio of isobutane/1-butene on MCM-36 was achieved.With the increase in surface density of acid and the tunable adsorption ratio of isobutane and 1-butene on the functionalized MCM-36, the acidic ionic liquid-immobilized zeolites are beneficial to obtain an improved reaction yield and a prolonged catalyst life in the reactions catalyzed by solid acid.

Regulation of isobutane/1-butene adsorption behaviors on the acidic ionic liquids-functionalized MCM-22 zeolite

The adsorption ratio of isobutane/1-butene on the catalyst surface is one of the most important factors for the C4 alkylation process. Regulation of isobutane/1-butene adsorption ratio on the zeolite-supported acid catalyst is a big challenge for catalyst preparation. To regulate the isobutane/1-butene adsorption ratio, four types of ionic liquid （i.e., IL） with different alkyl chain lengths and different acid group numbers were synthesized and were subsequently immobilized onto the MCM-22 zeolite. The as-synthesized IL-immobilized MCM-22 （i.e., MCM-22-IL） was characterized by FT1R, TGA, BET, XPS and XRD, and their adsorption capacities and adsorption molar ratios of isobutane to l-butene （I/O） were investigated to correlate with surface features of MCM-22-IL Results showed that the immobilization of ILs led to a decrease of specific surface area and pore volume. But the surface density of acid groups was increased and the adsorption molar ratio of isobutane/1-butene （I/O） was significantly im- proved by the immobilization of ionic liquids. The adsorption molar ratio of I/O is substantially improved from 0.75 to above 0.9 at 300 kPa upon immobilizing ILs. Although the alkyl chain length oflLs was found to have little effect on the adsorption molar ratio of I/O, the increase of acid group numbers led to a dramatic decrease in the adsorption I/O ratio. The results illustrated that immobilizing ionic liquids is an effective way to modify the textural, chemical and morphological properties of MCM-22. Accordingly, the immobilization of ionic liquids provides a novel and a feasible way to regulate the adsorption I/O ratio on an adsorbent or a solid catalyst.

Protein adsorption onto diethylaminoethyl dextran modified anion exchanger:Effect of ionic strength and column behavior

Our previous studies on bovine serum albumin （BSA） adsorption to diethylaminoethyl dextran （DEAE dextran, DexD, grafting-ligand） and DEAE （D, surface-ligand） modified Sepharose FF resins found that all the grafted resins （FF-DexD and FF-D-DexD） exhibited extremely fast uptake rate （effective diffusivity, De, De/Do 〉 1.4）, which was six times greater than the ungrafted resins （De/Do 〈 0.3）. In this work, the influence of ionic strength （IS） on 6 typical DEAE dextran-grafted resins was investigated. Bath adsorption equilibria and kinetics, breakthrough, and linear gradient elution experiments were conducted. Commercial DEAE Sepharose FF was used for comparison. It is found that protein adsorption capacities on DEAE dextran-FF resins and the commercial resin decreased with increasing IS, but DEAE dextran-FF resins exhibited much higher capacity sensitivity to salt concentration. Besides, steeper decrease of adsorption capacities could be obtained at higher graftingligand or surface-ligand density. It is worth noting that the facilitating role of surface-ligand to the ＂chain delivery＂ effect was weakened after adding salt, leading to the less improvement in uptake rate by increasing surface-ligand density at higher IS. Although the uptake rates of the DEAE dextran-FF resins increased first and then decreased with increasing fS, they kept the extremely high level of De values （De/Do 〉 1.1 ） at the their working/binding IS range. Moreover, the DEAE dextran-FF resin displayed much higher adsorption capacities and De values than commercial ungrafted resin in their working condition. Furthermore, the column results of DEAE dextran-FF resins presented higher dynamic binding capacities than and similar elution ISs with DEAE Sepharose FF to achieve similar （or even higher） recoveries suggest the excellent chromatographic column performance of the DEAE dextran-FF resins. Finally, both high recovery and purity of BSA and γ-globulin could be easily achieved using the typical DEAE dextran-FF column, FF-D60-DexD160, to separate their binary mixtures, by step gradient elution. The research has provided new insights into the practical application of the series of DEAE-dextran grafted resins in protein chromatography and proved their superiority.

CdS Quantum Dots-sensitized TiO_2 Nanotube Arrays for Solar Cells

CdS quantum dots（QDs） sensitized TiO2 nanotube arrays photoelectrodes were investigated for their photovoltaic performance of quantum dots-sensitized solar cells. The highly ordered TiO2 nanotube arrays（TNAs） were synthesized on Ti foils by anodic oxidation method. Then CdS quantum dots were deposited onto the TiO2 nanotube arrays by successive ionic layer absorption and reaction（SILAR） method to serve as the sensitizers. Cd（NO3）2 and Na2S were used as the precursor materials of Cd＋ and S2- ions, respectively. It is found that the CdS QDs sensitizer may significantly increase the light response of TiO2 nanotube arrays. With increasing CdS QDs deposition cycles, the visible light response increases. Maximum photocurrent was obtained for the QDs that have an absorption peak at about 500 nm. Under AM 1.5 G illuminations（100 mW cm^-2）, a 4.85 mA/cm^2 short circuit current density was achieved, and the maximium energy conversion efficiency of the asprepared CdS QDs-sensitized TNAs solar cells was obtained as high as 0.81% at five SILAR cycles.

Characterization of CulnS2 Thin Films with Different Cu/In Ratio

Thin films of CuInS2 were grown on glass reaction method with different [Cu]/[In] substrate by successive ionic layer adsorption and ratios and annealed at 400℃ for 30 rain. The crystal structure and grain sizes of the thin films were characterized by X-ray diffraction method. Atomic force microscopy was used to determine surface morphology of the films. Optical and electrical properties of these films were investigated as a function of [Cu]/[In] ratios. The electrical resistivity of CuInS~ of thin films was determined using a direct current- two probe method in the temperature range of 300-470 K. It is observed that, the electrical resistivity values show a big decreasing with increasing [Cu]/[In] ratio. Hence, the [Cu]/[In] ratio in the solution can drastically affect the structural, electrical, and optical properties of thin films of CuInS2.

Mass transfer mechanisms in fixed-bed adsorption of erythromycin

The equilibrium and kinetic characteristics of the adsorption of erythromycin to Sepabeads SP825 were determined.The equilibrium data in a batch system was well described by a Langmuir isotherm.The separation performance was investigated in a fixed-bed system with respect to the adsorption superficial velocity,ionic strength and pH.A mathematical model was used to simulate the mass transfer mechanism,taking film mass transfer,pore diffusion and axial dispersion into account.The model predictions were consistent with the experi-mental data and were consequently used to determine the mass transfer coefficients.

BiVO_4 semiconductor sensitized solar cells

Semiconductor sensitized solar cells(SSSCs) are promising candidates for the third generation of cost-effective photovoltaic solar cells and it is important to develop a group of robust, environment-friendly and visible-light-responsive semiconductor sensitizers. In this paper, we first synthesized bismuth vanadate(Bi VO4) quantum dots by employing facile successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction(SILAR) deposition technique, which we then used as a sensitizer for solar energy conversion. The preliminary optimised oxide SSSC showed an efficiency of 0.36%, nearly 2 orders of magnitude enhancement compared with bare Ti O2, due to the narrow bandgap absorption of Bi VO4 quantum dots and intimate contact with the oxide substrate. This result not only demonstrates a simple method to prepare Bi VO4 quantum dots based solar cells, but also provides important insights into the low bandgap oxide SSSCs.