title: Breakthrough in Xenon Capture and Purification Using Adsorbent-Supported Silver Nanoparticles.
abstract: Rare gas capture and purification is a major challenge for energy, environment, and health applications. Of utmost importance for the nuclear industry, novel separation processes for Xe are urgently needed for spent nuclear fuel reprocessing and nuclear activity monitoring. The recovered, non-radioactive Xe is also of high economic value for lighting, surgical anesthetic, etc. Here, using adsorption and breakthrough experiments and statistical mechanics molecular simulation, we show the outstanding performance of zeolite-supported silver nanoparticles to capture/separate Xe at low concentrations (0.087-100 ppm). We also establish the efficiency of temperature swing adsorption based on such adsorbents for Xe separation from Kr/Xe mixtures and air streams corresponding to off-gases generated by nuclear reprocessing. This study paves the way for the development of novel, cost-efficient technologies relying on the large selectivity/capacity of adsorbent-supported silver nanoparticles which surpass all materials ever tested.
authors.affiliation: CEA, DAM, DIF 91297 Arpajon, Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Ludovic
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Deliere
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire de Physique, CNRS and, Université Grenoble Alpes, 140 rue de la Physique, 38000, Grenoble, France. benoit.coasne@ujf-grenoble.fr.|Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and MultiScale, Material Science for Energy and Environment UMI 3466 CNRS-MIT, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Institution, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA. benoit.coasne@ujf-grenoble.fr.
authors.forename: Benoit
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Coasne
authors.affiliation: CEA, DAM, DIF 91297 Arpajon, Cedex, France. sylvain.topin@cea.fr.
authors.forename: Sylvain
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Topin
authors.affiliation: CEA, DAM, DIF 91297 Arpajon, Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Claire
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gréau
authors.affiliation: CEA, DAM, DIF 91297 Arpajon, Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Christophe
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Moulin
authors.affiliation: IRCELYON, Université Lyon 1, CNRS, 2 Avenue Albert Einstein, 69626, Villeurbanne, France.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Farrusseng
keywords: adsorption; metal nanoparticles; rare gases; selectivity; zeolites