"Dry water" (DW) is a free-flowing powder prepared by mixing water, hydrophobic silica particles, and air at high speeds. We demonstrated recently that DW can be used to dramatically enhance methane uptake rates in methane gas hydrate (MGH). Here, we expand on our initial work, demonstrating that DW can be used to increase the kinetics of formation of gas clathrates for gases other than methane, such as CO(2) and Kr. We also show that the stability of the system toward coalescence can be increased via the inclusion of a gelling agent to form a "dry gel", thus dramatically improving the recyclability of the material. For example, the addition of gellan gum allows effective reuse over at least eight clathration cycles without the need for reblending. DW and its "dry gel" modification may represent a potential platform for recyclable gas storage or gas separation on a practicable time scale in a static, unmixed system.
A key issue regarding the use of clathrates and semi-clathrate hydrates for practical gas storage is the pressure-temperature stability of the material. For many practical applications, the avoidance of cooling, gas overpressure, and mechanical mixing would be very desirable. Here, we show that porous emulsion-templated polymer supports greatly enhance methane uptake kinetics in tetra-iso-amylammonium bromide semi-clathrate hydrates without introducing complex mixing technologies. These systems show unprecedented thermal stability and can be decomposed upon demand to release the gas. Single crystal X-ray structure analysis of the semi-clathrates loaded with methane or krypton were obtained, confirming that the gases are stored in the dodecahedral A' and A'' cages
The use of inexpensive hydrogels as supports to significantly improve H2 enclathration kinetics and capacities in THF–H2O clathrate hydrate with respect to bulk solutions is demonstrated. Polymer hydrogels give rise to significant rate and capacity enhancements for hydrogen clathrate formation with respect to unmixed bulk systems, suggesting potential for accelerated gas-storage kinetics in clathrate-based technologies
An alkaline form of ‘dry water’—a ‘dry base’—is prepared by the high-speed mixing of aqueous solutions of metal carbonates or organic amines with hydrophobic silica nanoparticles.
The highly distributed gas-liquid interface in "dry water" powder can be used to greatly increase the kinetics of a gas-liquid heterogeneous catalytic hydrogenation, in the absence of any applied mixing.
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