Adsorption equilibrium of polar/non-polar mixtures on MCM-41: experiments and Monte Carlo simulation

Abstract

We have studied the adsorption of mixtures of polar and non-polar gases in MCM-41. MCM-41 is a suitable model on which to test our understanding of adsorption at the molecular level, and to evaluate methods for the prediction of multicomponent adsorption equilibrium. The adsorption of mixtures of methane, ethane and carbon dioxide (and the corresponding pure gases) was studied using experiment, grand canonical Monte Carlo (GCMC) simulation, and ideal adsorbed solution theory (IAST). Both GCMC and IAST work very well for the adsorption of the methane/ethane mixture in MCM-41. IAST gives good predictions for ethane/carbon dioxide mixture adsorption equilibrium at low and moderate pressures, and exhibits some deviations at relatively high pressures.