Water vapor adsorption is a process of great importance for several industries. Because of that, new materials formed by mesoporous silica with metallic heteroatom functionalization have been studied for water adsorption. This functionalization process is still little studied in the literature, with many topics remaining to be evaluated. One of them is how each functionalization method (grafting and co-condensation) influences the generation of isomorphic substitution or extra-framework oxides. Another is which of these configurations is most interesting for water adsorption. This work aims to address both questions. For this, two groups of samples were synthesized using grafting and co-condensation for the insertion of Al, Ti, Zr and Li into mesoporous silica SBA-15. These samples were analyzed using nitrogen adsorption, high resolution scanning microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, magic angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, pyridine adsorption and water adsorption. These techniques revealed that the co-condensation approach used in this work was most interesting for water adsorption at low partial pressures. This occurred because it generated a higher degree of isomorphic substitution, which was found to be the most active configuration of heteroatoms for this application.
Mesoporous silicas are known to be high-performing water adsorbents in high humidity levels due to their large pore volumes. However, for low humidity conditions, these materials typically present a less expressive performance, which is a drawback for many applications. In the present report, mesoporous silica SBA-15 was functionalized with Al, Ti, Zr and Li in order to improve their performance in this condition. The influence of functionalization in porosity, morphology and acidic sites was investigated. Samples with an increased number of acidic sites and with higher microporosity when compared to pure silica were produced. This was responsible for their enhanced performance for water adsorption in low moisture conditions. Sample functionalized with zirconium in SBA-15 synthesis improved the water adsorption capacity of pure silica by three times, reaching up to 127 g kg −1 at a relative pressure of 0.2 and 570 g kg −1 close to saturation pressure. This sample was found to be a promising material to be applied in processes which require high adsorption capacities in both low and high water partial pressure ranges. Moreover, the understanding of the mechanisms behind the heteroatom functionalization can be applied to any silica material in order to enhance its attractiveness towards any polar molecule. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10450-021-00336-6.
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