Sorption of C8 aromatics on MCM-41


Thesis Type: Postgraduate

Institution Of The Thesis: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering, Turkey

Approval Date: 2010

Student: BARAA ALİ ABBAS

Co-Supervisor: GÜRKAN KARAKAŞ, HAYRETTİN YÜCEL

Abstract:

The discovery of MCM-41 materials have attracted substantial research attention due to the remarkable features of these materials including a narrow pore size distribution, high surface area, high pore volume, and high thermal and hydrothermal stability, as well as, parallel hexagonal arrangement of uniform cylindrical pores without pore channel intersection. These well-defined structural characteristics make them ideal media to study the adsorption, catalysis, ion exchange, and separation. MCM-41 sample used in this study was synthesized in (Chemical Engineering Department, Gazi University). The MCM-41 was synthesized by using sodium silicate (0.0705 mol, 27% Silica) as a source of silica and surfactant cetyltrimethylammoniumbromides (CTMABr) (0.036 mol) as template. A characteristic feature of this direct hydothermal synthesis was relatively long synthesis time (96 hour at 120°C). MCM-41 was characterized by using XRD, and nitrogen physisorption analysis techniques. The characteristic peak in the low-angle region corresponding to 2θ= 2.406° was obtained for MCM-41 sample indicating high structural ordering of the MCM-41sample. The BET, surface area was found as (492.2 m /g), with an average pore diameter (25 Å). In this study the sorption equilibrium of C aromatics (p-xylene, m-xylene, o-xylene, and ethylbenzene ) on MCM-41 at different temperatures (30°C, 50°C, 65°C, 80°C) was investigated by using an automated gravimetric electrobalance system. It was found that the amounts of each sorbate (p-xylene, m-xylene, o-xylene, and ethylbenzene) adsorbed at a given relative pressure on MCM-41 decreased when the temperature of the adsorption isotherms increases. The adsorption isotherms were type V, according to IUPAC isotherm classification due to the mesoporous nature of the MCM-41 sample. The hysteresis are associated with condensation-evaporation within a narrow distribution of mesopores with each adsorption isotherms. It was shown that as the temperature for the adsorption isotherms increases the size of hysteresis decreases for each sorbate. The volume of sorbates (V ) were obtained from the mass uptake at maximum relative pressure by taking the normal liquid density at the adsorption temperature for all sorbates. These values are significantly lower than that obtained from low-temperature nitrogen isotherm. The reason of this difference is that the density of the adsorbed phase is unlikely to be exactly the same as that of the liquid adsorptive and curvature of some isotherms at high relative pressure leads to uncertainty in the location of the upper limit for pore filling.