Isosteric heat of hydrogen adsorption is one of the most important parameters required to describe solid-state hydrogen storage systems. Typically, it is calculated from adsorption isotherms measured at 77K (liquid N2) and 87K (liquid Ar). This simple calculation, however, results in a high degree of uncertainty due to the small temperature range. Therefore, the original Sievert type setup is upgraded using a heating and cooling device to regulate the wide sample temperature. This upgraded setup allows a wide temperature range for isotherms (77K ~ 117K) providing a minimized uncertainty (error) of measurement for adsorption enthalpy calculation and yielding reliable results. To this end, we measure the isosteric heats of hydrogen adsorption of two prototypical samples: activated carbon and metal-organic frameworks (e.g. MIL-53), and compared the small temperature range (77~87K) to the wide one (77K ~ 117K).

In preparation of silica aerogel-based hybrid coating materials, the combination of hydrophobic aerogel with organic polar binder material is shown to be very limited due to dissimilar surface property between two materials. Accordingly, the surface modification of the aerogel would be required to obtain compatibilized hybrid coating sols with homogeneous dispersion. In this study, the surface of silica aerogel particles was modified by using both surfactant adsorption and heat treatment methods. Four types of surfactants with different molecular weights and HLB values were used to examine the effect of chain length and hydrophilicity. The surface property of the modified aerogel was evaluated in terms of visible observation for aerogel dispersion in water, water contact angle measurement, and FT-IR analysis. In surface modification using surfactants, the effects of surfactant type and content, and mixing time as process parameter on the degree of hydrophilicity for the modified aerogel. In addition, the temperature condition in modification process via heat treatment was revealed to be significant factor to prepare aerogel with highly hydrophilic property.

In this work, graphite nanofibers (GNFs) were prepared by ammonia and heat treatment at temperatures up to 1000℃ to improve its CO2 adsorption capacity. The effects of the heat treatment on the textural properties and surface chemistry of the GNFs were investigated by N2 adsorption isotherms, XRD, and elemental analysis. We found that the chemical properties of GNFs were significantly changed after the ammonia treatment. Mainly amine groups were formed on the GNF surfaces such as lactam groups, pyrrole and pyridines. The GNFs treated at 500℃ showed highest CO2 adsorption capacity of 26.9 mg/g at 273 K in this system.