Abstract
The 3He isotope finds applications in many areas of science and industry, the most important of which are cryogenics, where 3He allows for achieving millikelvins in dilution refrigerators, and public security with 3He detectors of radioactive materials at airports and important buildings. 3He is also used in medicine for lung tomography. One of the most extraordinary future applications is the use of 3He in fusion reactors for clean energy. 3He is currently very expensive, with prices reaching USD 2750 for 1 liter of gas in normal conditions; thus, more effort is put into finding economically viable methods to acquire this isotope. The article shows research results of acquiring the 3He isotope from liquid helium by a quantum separation method with the use of entropy filters based on new carbon nanomaterials: purified multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and purified multiwall carbon nanotubes decorated with ZrO2 nanoparticles. MWCNTs were bundled and applied in the form of pressed tablets with fixed sizes. The research was conducted at the low-temperature region, where helium exhibits its quantum properties by undergoing a phase transition to the superfluid phase at the lambda temperature: Tλ= 2.18 K. Entropy filters work below this temperature.
Highlights
From the end of the 1960s, the annual global energy consumption increased almost 3.5 times [1], leading us to look for sources that both supply stable and safe energy production, and are in line with the sustainable development of the global economy
Methods for the separation of 3He-4He mixture have been used for a long time [7,8,9], but the most interesting are those conducted at low temperatures [10,11,12], utilizing quantum effects occurring in superfluid helium that allow for the use of entropy filters composed of various materials [13,14]
Entropy filters were examined for the capacity of the superfluid component flow and for the effectiveness of the 3He isotope separation
Summary
From the end of the 1960s, the annual global energy consumption increased almost 3.5 times [1], leading us to look for sources that both supply stable and safe energy production, and are in line with the sustainable development of the global economy. Methods for the separation of 3He-4He mixture have been used for a long time [7,8,9], but the most interesting are those conducted at low temperatures [10,11,12], utilizing quantum effects occurring in superfluid helium that allow for the use of entropy filters composed of various materials [13,14]. In our case, these are modern carbon nanomaterials: pure and ZrO2-decorated bundled multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) in the form of pressed tablets of a certain size
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