Date of Award
5-1-2016
Degree Name
Master of Science
Department
Physics
First Advisor
Migone, Aldo
Abstract
We have measured adsorption isotherms at ten different temperatures from 90.432 K to 163.812 K for CF4 on a sample of chemically-opened carbon nanohorns. The interior of the individual nanohorns is accessible to sorbates in these chemically opened nanohorns. Two substeps are visible in the adsorption data, one corresponding to groups of stronger binding sites (lower pressure substep) and another corresponding to weaker binding sites (higher pressure substep). The stronger binding sites are interstitial pores and intra nanohorns pores and the weaker binding sites are outer surfaces and interior sites away from the tips. We have found that the isosteric heat is a decreasing function of coverage. Results for the effective specific surface area (≈969 m^2/gm), kinetics of adsorption, and the isosteric heat of adsorption as a function of sorbate loading will be presented. Comparison to absorption results for other sorbates on open carbon nanohorns will be discussed.
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