CommunicationsThese results clearly show that the intensity observed in the two-dimensional scattering patterns comes from the porosity of the samples, which can be filled partially or totally with dibromomethane. According to contrast-matching results, the very narrow porosity existing in the original carbon fiber becomes wider during the activation process. It has been seen that the higher the burn-off, the higher the contrast-matching effect, due to the existence of a wider mean pore size of the porosity.
ConclusionThe most widely used technique for characterizing microporous solids, nitrogen adsorption at 77 K, has been compared with CO 2 adsorption at low and high pressure. It has been shown that, in the case of samples with very narrow microporosity, e.g., carbon molecular sieves, nitrogen adsorption at 77 K is absent, because the narrow micropores are not accessible to nitrogen at this temperature. In this case, the N 2 at 77 K characterization may be worthless. On the other hand, it has been seen that by using CO 2 adsorption, these problems can be avoided. CO 2 adsorption at 273 K presents some advantages; the adsorption temperature is high enough to avoid diffusion problems, and its physical properties allow very low relative pressures to be attained, without the need for complex low-pressure adsorption equipment. It has been shown that by using CO 2 adsorption, the micropore volume and the MPSD of samples with very narrow MPSD can be obtained.In addition, contrast-matching lSAXS experiments have been preformed to study the evolution of the porosity in carbon fibers during physical activation with CO 2 . The original carbon fiber and two activated carbon fibers with different degrees of burn-off (29 % and 50 %) have been used for this study. The porosity of these samples, have been filled partial or totally with dibromomethane, in order to eliminate scattering. According to contrast-matching results, the very narrow porosity existing in the original carbon fiber is not accessible to dibromomethane. In addition, it is seen that the higher the burn-off degree, the higher the contrast-matching effect, due to the existence of a wider mean pore size of the porosity.In the present study, a well-established technique (gas adsorption) and a ªnewº technique (lSAXS) have both corroborated the limitations of nitrogen adsorption at 77 K for the characterization of narrow microporosity.
AcknowledgementThe authors thank ESRF (Experiment Number ME-93) for the facilities and financial support. Also, we would like to thank MCYT (Project MAT 2000-0621) for financial support. However, a significant barrier to their uptake is the unavailability of membrane systems having the required performance at an acceptable cost. In this paper we will explore the use of one class of membrane that has the potential to deliver high performance at reasonable cost. Ion-conducting ceramic membranes can be used in a wide range of high temperature applications including fuel cells, advanced reactors and even smart catalytic systems.