We have studied by volumetric adsorption isotherm measurements the
sorption properties of different
AlPO4-5 or SAPO-5 samples, for sorbate species
characterized by a large range of molecular size: D2,
Kr,
Ar, C2D2, CO2, CH4,
CF4, and C(CH3)4. The highest
sorption capacities, Q
max, greatly depend on the
sorbate
molecular size. A difference of 1 order of magnitude is observed
between hydrogen and neopentane. In
addition, we have found that the sorption capacities of the four
analyzed AlPO4-5 or SAPO-5 samples vary
by almost a factor of 2. This result clearly shows that, as a
consequence of the one-dimensional character
of the AFI micropore network, Q
max is very
sensitive to small amounts of crystalline defects or
impurities.
For methane, Q
max is equal to 6 mol/uc, a
quantity that is not compatible with the commonly accepted
value
of the internal diameter of the AlPO4-5 micropore diameter,
⌀M = 7.3 Å. Moreover, an interesting
phase
transition phenomenon has been observed during the sorption of krypton
and methane, a result that can
be the consequence of the good parametric agreement between such
sorbate species and the AlPO4-5 inner
surface.