Bimodal porous materials with superior adsorption properties

Abstract

Porous materials with bimodal (micro and meso) pore size distribution have been prepared at ambient conditions. The materials contain randomly distributed mesoporous channels with uniform pore size and exhibit very large surface areas and pore volumes. The adsorption properties for water and some large organic molecules of the materials were determined. The water sorption capacities of the materials are about 300% higher than those of conventional zeolite molecular sieves such as zeolite 13X. The materials also have a great capacity to adsorb large molecules (e.g., > 60 wt.% tetralin) that zeolites exclude. The open structure and large pore size also result in high rates of adsorption and desorption. The superior adsorption properties of these new materials indicate their great potential for applications in adsorption and catalysis. Large-scale production of the mesosieve materials is expected to be straightforward and economical.