Nanoporous Boron Nitride as Exceptionally Thermally Stable Adsorbent: Role in Efficient Separation of Light Hydrocarbons

Abstract

In this work, nanoporous boron nitride sample was synthesized with a Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area of 1360 m/g and particle size 5-7 μm. The boron nitride was characterized with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and electron microscopy (TEM and SEM). Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) under nitrogen and air and subsequent analysis with XPS and XRD suggested that its structure is stable in air up to 800 °C and in nitrogen up to 1050 °C, which is higher than most of the common adsorbents reported so far. Nitrogen and hydrocarbon adsorption at 298 K and pressure up to 1 bar suggested that all hydrocarbon adsorption amounts were higher than that of nitrogen and the adsorbed amount of hydrocarbon increases with an increase in its molecular weight. The kinetics of adsorption data suggested that adsorption becomes slower with the increase in molecular weight of hydrocarbons. The equilibrium data suggested that that boron nitride is selective to paraffins in a paraffin-olefin mixture and hence may act as an "olefin generator". The ideal adsorbed solution theory (IAST)-based selectivity for CH/N, CH/CH, and CH/CH was very high and probably higher than the majority of adsorbents reported in the literature. IAST-based calculations were also employed to simulate the binary mixture adsorption data for the gas pairs of CH/N, CH/CH, CH/CH, and CH/CH. Finally, a simple mathematical model was employed to simulate the breakthrough behavior of the above-mentioned four gas pairs in a dynamic column experiment. The overall results suggest that nanoporous boron nitride can be used as a potential adsorbent for light hydrocarbon separation.

Fluorescent Carbon‐ and Oxygen‐Doped Hexagonal Boron Nitride Powders as Printing Ink for Anticounterfeit Applications

“…During the preparation of h‐BN, H 2 was used to ensure full nitridation and removal of C atoms, leading to white BN products . h‐BN is seen to be more thermally stable than BCN, with a loss of only 5.44% of its initial weight upon heating to 850 °C which is ascribed to the loss of hydroxyl or amine groups . In contrast, a 21.69% weight loss is observed for the BCN sample.…”

“…In contrast, a 21.69% weight loss is observed for the BCN sample. Upon further heating, the h‐BN sample experiences a slow mass gain while the BCN sample continued to lose weight, before a rapid mass gain, which was ascribed to oxidation producing B 2 O 3 . Carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) was observed when the BCN sample was heated in O 2 /He (Figure d).…”

A Solvent‐Free Synthesis of Lignin‐Derived Renewable Carbon with Tunable Porosity for Supercapacitor Electrodes

“…All isotherms exhibit as teep initial climb at low relative pressuref ollowed by af lat plateau,s ignifying typical type Iisotherms with dominant microporosity (Figure 4a). [15] All isotherms except for GLB and 1-GLB also show smallh ysteresis, indicating capillary condensation in mesopores. [16] Similar features can also be determined from the pore size distributions (Figure 4b).…”

γ-Valerolactone-Extracted Lignin to Porous Carbon Materials

“…All isotherms exhibit a steep initial climb at low relative pressure followed by a flat plateau, signifying typical type I isotherms with dominant microporosity (Figure 8a). [15] All isotherms except for GLB and 1-GLB also show small hysteresis, indicating capillary condensation in mesopores. [16] Similar features can also be determined from the pore size distributions (Figure 8b).…”