Preparation of a Highly Porous Clay-Based Absorbent for Hazard Spillage Mitigation via Two-Step Expansion of Vermiculite

Expanded vermiculite (eVMT) has been studied as a risk-free, general-purpose absorbent for liquid hazards due to its excellent thermal and chemical stability. Here, vermiculite was expanded by two steps: exfoliation by 30 wt% H2O2 treatment at 60 °C and subsequent expansion by microwave heating. This two-step expansion produced more homogenously separated concertina-like eVMTs with a higher total pore volume of 7.75 cm3 g−1 than the conventional thermal method. The two-step eVMT was found to be greatly superior to the thermal and commercial silver counterparts in hazardous liquid-uptake performance. The uptake was simply interpreted as a physical infilling process of a liquid into the eVMT pores, and the spontaneous hazard removal with a great capacity was discussed with the large pore volume of two-step eVMT and its suitable pore dimensions for capillary action. As a practical device, a prototype absorbent assembly made of these eVMTs demonstrated the successful mitigation of liquid hazards on an impermeable surface.

Production of nanopowder of cerium (III) fluoride obtained by pulsed electron beam evaporation in vacuum

The method of pulsed electron beam evaporation in vacuum was first used to obtain CeF3 nanopowder (NP). During NP production, a high evaporation rate of the target (~ 7 g/h) and a higher percentage of NP collection (> 72%) were observed, both for fluoride and the previously obtained CeO2 oxide. It was found that the produced NP contains two crystalline phases: hexagonal CeF3 (95 wt.%, coherent scattering region ≈ 8 nm and [Ce-O-F] or [Ce-F]. The magnetic susceptibility of CeF3 nanoparticles (NPles) coincides with the susceptibility of micron particles, indicating the potential for using such NPles as a contrast agent for tomography. High specific surface area (CeO2-270 m2/g, CeF3 – 62 m2/g), large pore volume (0.35-0.11 cm3/g) allow the use of NPles as nanocontainers for drug delivery.

Significant improvement of the lithium-ion conductivity of solid-state electrolytes by fabricating large pore volume hollow ZIF-8

A kind of hollow ZIF-8 was synthesized through an exterior-template method which exhibits excellent electrochemical properties.

Synthesis of dense porous layered double hydroxides from struvite

An atom economic synthesis of dense porous layered double hydroxides (SLDHs) using an undesirable waste in wastewater treatment plants (struvite) is reported. The obtained SLDHs show high specific surface area, large pore volume and high density.

Research of oxygen evolution reaction based on ZIF-67 catalyst

As a new type of crystalline porous material, the imidazole zeolite framework (ZIF) has attracted widespread attention due to its ultra-high surface area, large pore volume, and unique advantages of...

Digital-Intellectual design of microporous organic polymers

Microporous organic polymers (MOPs) are a new kind of microporous material. Due to their high porosity, large pore volume, and large surface area, MOPs exhibit excellent performance in gas adsorption...