Volume and Surface Distribution Heterogeneity of Nano-pore in Coal Samples by CO2 and N2 Adsorption Experiments

In this paper,the heterogeneity of adsorption pores in middle and high rank coal samples were analyzed by using low temperature N2 and CO2 adsorption technology and fractal theory.The following results were achieved.1)According to the results of volume and surface fractal dimension,meso-pores can be classified into Mep-1,Mep-2,and Mep-3,respectively.Micro-pore can be classified into Mip-1,Mip-2,and Mip-3,respectively.2)Pore types play an important role in affecting the heterogeneity of meso-pores.The volume heterogeneity(VHY)of Mep-1 is simpler than that of Mep-2 and Mep-3 in type A samples.However,the VHY of Mep-1 becomes gradually larger than that of Mep-2 and Mep-3 from type A to type B and C.The VHY of open pore in the same diameter is higher than that of semi-open or closed pore.Meanwhile,the surface heterogeneity(SHY)of types A and B samples is significantly larger than that of type C,the SHY of semi-open or closed pores is more complicated than that of open pores.3)Coal rank mainly affects the heterogeneity of micro-pores.The heterogeneity of type A is always smaller than that of type B and C.The VHY of Mip-1 is more complicated than that of Mip-2 and Mip-3 in the same samples,and the sensitivity of the VHY of Mip-1 and Mip-2 to the degree of coal rank is smaller than that of Mip-3.Meanwhile,the SHY of Mip-1 and Mip-2 is simpler than that of Mip-3 in the same sample,the SHY of micro-pores remains stable as the pore size decreases,and the affect of coalification level on SHY decreases with the decrease in pore diameter.Full-scale fractal characterization has enabled quantitative characterization of adsorption pore properties and provided useful information with regards to the similarity of pore features in different coal reservoirs.

A comparative study of the pore characteristics and phenol adsorption performance of activated carbons prepared from oil-palm shell wastes by steam and combined steam-chemical activation

Oil-palm shell wastes were successfully converted into useful activated carbons in a systematic and novel approach by optimizing the pyrolysis conditions and subsequent steam activation conditions to maximize the BET surface area.The optimal activation conditions were a steam flow rate of 1.13 kg/h,hold time of 1.5 h and temperature of 950℃,yielding BET areas of 1432.94 and 1382.95 m^(2)/g for nitrogen-pyrolyzed and vacuumpyrolyzed chars,respectively.In steam-chemical activation,one-step activation of oil-palm shell in steam with potassium carbonate(K_(2)CO_(3)),sodium carbonate(Na_(2)CO_(3))or potassium chloride(KCl)was conducted,resulting in BET area output order of shell/K_(2)CO_(3)(710.56 m^(2)/g)>shell/KCl(498.55 m^(2)/g)>shell(366.7 m^(2)/g)>shell/Na_(2)CO_(3)(326.62 m^(2)/g).This study reported the first use of KCl and Na_(2)CO_(3)as chemical reagents in one-step steam-chemical activation of biomass.KCl-activated carbon exhibited retardation of tar formation property,resulting in better pore development than pure steam activated carbon.Phenol adsorption of activated carbon is not only a function of the BET surface area but also the type of pyrolysis used prior to physical activation.Activated carbon(BET area of 1192.29 m^(2)/g)pyrolyzed under vacuum could adsorb 87%more phenol than that pyrolyzed in nitrogen flow which had a higher BET area of 1432.94 m^(2)/g.Phenol adsorption capacities of activated carbons are:shell pyrolyzed under vacuum(275.5 mg/g)>shell pyrolyzed in N_(2)flow(147.1 mg/g)>shell/K_(2)CO_(3)(145.7 mg/g)>shell without pyrolysis(12.1 mg/g).These activated carbons would be highly suitable in industry processes to remove phenolic contaminants.

Fractal analysis of polyferric chloride-humic acid(PFC-HA) flocs in different topological spaces

The fractal dimensions in different topological spaces of polyferric chloride-humic acid （PFC-HA） flocs, formed in flocculating different kinds of humic acids （HA） water at different initial pH （9.0, 7.0, 5.0） and PFC dosages, were calculated by effective densitymaximum diameter, image analysis, and N2 absorption-desorption methods, respectively. The mass fractal dimensions （De） of PFC-HA floes were calculated by bi-logarithm relation of effective density with maximum diameter and Logan empirical equation. The Df value was more than 2.0 at initial pH of 7,0, which was 11% and 13% higher than those at pH 9.0 and 5.0, respecively, indicating the most compact flocs formed in flocculated HA water at initial pH of 7.0. The image analysis for those flocs indicates that after flocculating the HA water at initial pH greater than 7.0 with PFC flocculant, the fractal dimensions of D2 （logA vs. logdL） and D3 （logVsphere vs. logdL） of PFC-HA floes decreased with the increase of PFC dosages, and PFC-HA floes showed a gradually looser structure. At the optimum dosage of PFC, the D2 （logA vs. logdL） values of the flocs show 14%-43% difference with their corresponding Dr, and they even had different tendency with the change of initial pH values. However, the D2 values of the floes formed at three different initial pH in HA solution had a same tendency with the corresponding Df. Based on fractal Frenkel-Halsey-HiU （FHH） adsorption and desorption equations, the pore surface fractal dimensions （Ds） for dried powders of PFC-HA flocs formed in HA water with initial pH 9.0 and 7.0 were all close to 2.9421, and the Ds values of flocs formed at initial pH 5.0 were less than 2.3746. It indicated that the pore surface fractal dimensions of PFC-HA floes dried powder mainly show the irregularity from the mesopore-size distribution and marcopore-size distribution.

Characteristics of phosphorus adsorption by sediment mineral matrices with different particle sizes

The particle size of sediment is one of the main factors that influence the phosphorus physical adsorption on sediment. In order to eliminate the effect of other components of sediment on the phosphorus physical adsorption, the sediment mineral matrices were obtained by removing inorganic matter, metal oxides, and organic matter from natural sediments, which were collected from the Nantong reach of the Yangtze River. The results show that an exponential relationship exists between the median particle size （Ds0） and specific surface area （Sg） of the sediment mineral matrices, and the fine sediment mineral matrix sample has a larger specific surface area and pore volume than the coarse sediment particles. The kinetic equations were used to describe the phosphorus adsorption process of the sediment mineral matrices, including the Elovich equation, quasi-first-order adsorption kinetic equation, and quasi-second-order adsorption kinetic equation. The results show that the quasi-second-order adsorption kinetic equation has the best fitting effect. Using the mass conservation and Langmuir adsorption kinetic equations, a formula was deduced to calculate the equilibrium adsorption capacity of the sediment mineral matrices. The results of this study show that the phosphorus adsorption capacity decreases with the increase of Ds0, indicating that the specific surface area and pore volume are the main factors in determining the phosphorus adsorption capacity of the sediment mineral matrices. This study will help understand the important role of sediment in the transformation of phosphorus in aquatic environments.

High-performance organic electrolyte supercapacitors based on intrinsically powdery carbon aerogels

A novel class of powdery carbon aerogels（PCAs） has been developed by the union of microemulsion polymerization and hypercrosslinking, followed by carbonization. The resulting aerogels are in a microscale powdery form, demonstrate a well-defined 3D interconnected nanonetwork with hierarchical pores derived from numerous interstitial nanopores and intraparticle micropores, and exhibit high surface area（up to 1969 m^2/g）. Benefiting from these structural features, PCAs show impressive capacitive performances when utilized as electrodes for organic electrolyte supercapacitors,including large capacitances of up to 152 F/g, high energy densities of 37-15 Wh/kg at power densities of 34–6750 W/kg, and robust cycling stability.

Lithium Ion Conduction in Covalent Organic Frameworks

Ion conduction plays key roles in electrochemical systems,including fuel cells,lithium ion batteries,and metal-air batteries.Covalent organic frameworks(COFs),as a new class of porous polymers,constructed by pre-designable building blocks,are ideal hosts to accommodate ionic carries for conduction because of their straightforward pore channels,tunable pore size,controllable pore environment,and good chemical and thermal stability.Different from proton conduction,how to achieve high lithium ion conduction is still a challenge as it is difficult to dissociate ionic bonds of the lithium salts.To facilitate the dissociation of lithium salts,COFs with different pores and skeletons are well designed and constructed.This review focuses on emerging developments of lithium ion conduction in COFs,and discusses the structures of these COFs and conductive performance to elucidate the structure-property correlations.Furthermore,we have concluded the remaining challenge and future direction in these COF-based lithium conductive areas.This review provides deeper insight into COFs for ionic conduction.

Effects of steam explosion pretreatment on the chemical composition and fiber characteristics of cornstalks

This paper investigated the influence of steam explosion pretreatment with or without acid as the catalyst on the chemical composition and sugar contents of corn stalks.The fiber characteristics of the pretreated corn stalks were analyzed with a scanning electron microscope,a FS-300 automatic fiber analyzer and a fully automatic surface and pore analyzer.The results showed that the steam explosion pretreatment did not change the cellulose content of the corn stalks.However,hemicellulose was degraded and a portion of lignin was solubilized in the steam explosion pretreatment process.When acid was added in the steam explosion process,the fiber surface and cell wall structure of corn stalks were damaged,the specific surface area and pore size increased,and fiber length decreased,all of which were beneficial to subsequent enzymatic hydrolysis with cellulase.However,content of polysaccharides decreased after acid steam explosion pretreatment.

Factors influencing antibiotics adsorption onto engineered adsorbents

The study evaluated the adsorption of two antibiotics by four engineered adsorbents （hypercrosslinked resin MN-202, macroporous resin XAD-4, activated carbon F-400, and multi-walled carbon nanotubes （MWCNT）） from aqueous solutions. The dynamic results demonstrated the dominant influence of pore size in adsorption. The adsorption amounts of antibiotics on XAD-4 were attributed to the hydrophobic effect, whereas steric hindrance or micropore-filling played a main role in the adsorption of antibiotics by F-400 because of its high microporosity. Aside from F-400, similar patterns of pH-dependent adsorption were observed, implying the importance of antibiotic molecular forms to the adsorption process for adsorbents. Increasing the ionic concentration with CaCl 2 produced particular adsorption characteristics on MWCNT at pH 2.0 and F-400 at pH 8.0, which were attributed to the highly available contact surfaces and molecular sieving, respectively. Its hybrid characteristics incorporating a considerable portion of mesopores and micropores made hypercross linked MN-202 a superior antibiotic adsorbent with high adsorption capacity. Furthermore, the adsorption capacity of MWCNT on the basis of surface area was more advantageous than that of the other adsorbents because MWCNT has a much more compact molecular arrangement.