title: Nanoporous Boron Nitride as Exceptionally Thermally Stable Adsorbent: Role in Efficient Separation of Light Hydrocarbons.
abstract: In this work, nanoporous boron nitride sample was synthesized with a Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area of 1360 m2/g and particle size 5-7 μm. The boron nitride was characterized with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and electron microscopy (TEM and SEM). Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) under nitrogen and air and subsequent analysis with XPS and XRD suggested that its structure is stable in air up to 800 °C and in nitrogen up to 1050 °C, which is higher than most of the common adsorbents reported so far. Nitrogen and hydrocarbon adsorption at 298 K and pressure up to 1 bar suggested that all hydrocarbon adsorption amounts were higher than that of nitrogen and the adsorbed amount of hydrocarbon increases with an increase in its molecular weight. The kinetics of adsorption data suggested that adsorption becomes slower with the increase in molecular weight of hydrocarbons. The equilibrium data suggested that that boron nitride is selective to paraffins in a paraffin-olefin mixture and hence may act as an "olefin generator". The ideal adsorbed solution theory (IAST)-based selectivity for CH4/N2, C2H6/CH4, and C3H8/C3H6was very high and probably higher than the majority of adsorbents reported in the literature. IAST-based calculations were also employed to simulate the binary mixture adsorption data for the gas pairs of CH4/N2, C2H6/CH4, C2H6/C2H4, and C3H8/C3H6. Finally, a simple mathematical model was employed to simulate the breakthrough behavior of the above-mentioned four gas pairs in a dynamic column experiment. The overall results suggest that nanoporous boron nitride can be used as a potential adsorbent for light hydrocarbon separation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Widener University , One University Place, Chester, Pennsylvania 19013, United States.
authors.forename: Dipendu
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3251-2663
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Saha
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Widener University , One University Place, Chester, Pennsylvania 19013, United States.
authors.forename: Gerassimos
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Orkoulas
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Widener University , One University Place, Chester, Pennsylvania 19013, United States.
authors.forename: Samuel
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yohannan
authors.affiliation: Materials Science and Technology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory , Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831, United States.|The Bredesen Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Graduate Education, The University of Tennessee , Knoxville, Tennessee 37996, United States.
authors.forename: Hoi Chun
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Ho
authors.affiliation: Materials Science and Technology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory , Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831, United States.
authors.forename: Ercan
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Cakmak
authors.affiliation: Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, United States, Oak Ridge National Laboratory , Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831, United States.
authors.forename: Jihua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Materials Science and Technology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory , Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831, United States.|Department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Biomedical Engineering, University of Tennessee at Knoxville , Knoxville, Tennessee 37996, United States.
authors.forename: Soydan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ozcan
keywords: IAST; adsorption; boron nitride; breakthrough curve; hydrocarbon; selectivity