Kinetic Selectivity Effects of Binary Mixtures on Nanotube Bundles: Internal and External Adsorption
Date of Award
5-1-2010
Degree Name
Master of Science
Department
Physics
First Advisor
Calbi, Mercedes
Abstract
Kinetic selectivity effects that take place during the adsorption of binary mixture of gas particles in the inside and on the external surface of a single-walled carbon nanotube as well as on surface of a bundle of single-walled carbon nanotubes has been studied using a kinetic Monte Carlo technique and a lattice-gas model. We considered a homogeneous one-dimensional lattice and a heterogeneous two-dimensional lattice to represent adsorbing surfaces on a single carbon nanotube and on a bundle of carbon nanotubes respectively. We restricted adsorption/desorption only to the end sites, in the case of "pore-like" adsorption. In this work, we present effect of gas-gas interactions on the adsorption kinetics of binary mixtures on surface of carbon nanotubes. It was found that interactions caused significant change in an effective binding energy of both chemical species and as a result, change in the chemical species' adsorption rate and fractional equilibrium coverage was observed when partial pressures for the chemical species were not very low or very high. Low and high partial pressures (chemical potentials) caused long-range and short-range interactions respectively; in such cases dynamics of the system was little affected. Simulation results of adsorption kinetics of binary mixtures in pore and on the heterogeneous surface formed by two adjacent carbon nanotubes are also presented.
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