Effect of Degassing on the Stability and Reversibility of Glycerol/ZSM-5 Zeolite System

Abstract

Featured Application: A system composed of liquid and hydrophobic nanoporous materials can perform high energy absorption efficiency when applying external pressure. Such an advanced energy absorption system has the potential application for high-performance protection devices to protect the personnel and civil infrastructures from impact, and other areas that involve energy absorption/conversion. Gaseous phase in a liquid/nanoporous system plays roles during application. Understanding the effect of the amount of residual gas on the liquid/nanoporous system will help to guide the pretreatment of the liquid/nanoporous material mixture before encapsulating.Abstract: Gaseous phase plays roles in a liquid/nanoporous system during application that adequate attention should be paid to the gaseous effects and the nanoscale gas-liquid interaction. In the present study, two glycerol/ZSM-5 zeolite systems with different amount of residual gas are compared by performing a series of experiments. Influences of loading rate, as well as system temperature on the gas-liquid interactions, are studied. Results show that vacuum degassing pretreatment is required to obtain a reversible and stable energy absorption system. Moreover, the influence of gas on a liquid/nanoporous system is found to mainly act on the liquid outflow. After the routine vacuum degassing pretreatment, the residual air that is left in the nanopores is around 0.9014 nm -3 per unit specific pore volume, as presented in the current study. During compression, the existing gas left in the nanochannel tends to gather into the gas cluster, which further promotes the liquid outflow during unloading. However, excessively dissolved gas may reduce the driving force for liquid outflow by breaking the continuity of the liquid molecular chain in nanochannel. Consequently, small bubbles as a labile factor in the system must be excluded for the steady use of the system. This work sheds some light on the effect of the amount of residual gas on the liquid/nanoporous system and gives guidance on the pretreatment of the liquid/nanoporous material mixture before encapsulating.

Experimental Study on the Effects of Applied Electric Field on Liquid Infiltration into Hydrophobic Zeolite

“…When the pressure in the chamber is reduced to 0.1 MPa, the pressure-distance characteristic curve does not completely return to origin point A. It indicates that there is an irreversible change in the system, which may be caused by part of the fluid permanently trapped in the zeolite pores or defects produced upon the previous intrusion−extrusion cycles [35].…”

Experimental study on application characteristics of zeolite/water stuffing for the nanofluidic packer rubber

“…Thus, the gas molecules are more inclined to gather as clusters. Study results in literature 41–43 show that the high-pressure gas clusters in the pore channel are driven force for liquid outflow. Therefore, the increase of loading rate will increase the outflow of liquid to a certain extent.…”

Applications of Nanoporous and Metamaterials: An Unornamented Review

“…Exploration of NPM's leads to identification of new materials and applications. Recent developments in fabrication of nanoporous materials along with their applications were reported [3][4][5][6][7][8][9]. However, societal applications of NPM's in water purification, medicine and electronics are of more significance.…”