Speaker
Description
Additive manufacturing is gaining increasing interest in the field of catalysis and gas separation applications due to the geometric flexibility for a wide range of materials. However, this process typically demands the use of a combination of organic and inorganic binders such as clays, silica or alumina to ensure mechanical integrity. As a result, these types of structures often are extremely brittle and require several post-processing steps involving thermal decomposition of the organic content which could lead to poor adhesion between the various components. In this work, hybrid organic-inorganic composites were developed using the 3D micro-extrusion technique in combination with a phase inversion process. Due to the combination of the capture efficiency of the inorganic materials and the flexibility or toughness of a polymer matrix, a non-brittle hybrid composite adsorbent composed of a polymer skin encapsulating the uniformly distributed inorganic particles could be developed. Moreover, the ability to eliminate the required thermal treatment in conventional binder systems enables the direct shaping of a wide range of materials that are susceptible to oxidation or thermal decomposition including carbon-based materials, metals and various types of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs).
As a model case, zeolite 13X was used for H2O and CO2 adsorption while three different polymers were compared to evaluate the effect of the polymer nature on the porosity and zeolite accessibility. Extensive characterization was performed in terms of N2, Ar and Hg porosimetry as well as static isotherm measurements and dynamic breakthrough curves. The developed polymer composites were compared with a 3D-printed zeolite-clay structure and other conventional structured zeolites, including pellets and wash coated honeycombs, to show the promising potential of this approach and the industrial applicability.
