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Porous Strontium Chloride Scaffolded by Graphene Networks as Ammonia Carriers
Luleå University of Technology, Department of Engineering Sciences and Mathematics, Material Science.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-3216-6270
Luleå University of Technology, Department of Engineering Sciences and Mathematics, Material Science.ORCID iD: 0000-0003-4888-6237
2021 (English)In: Advanced Functional Materials, ISSN 1616-301X, E-ISSN 1616-3028, Vol. 31, no 30, article id 2008505Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Strontium chloride (SrCl2) as ammonia (NH3) carriers has been widely exploited due to its high ammonia uptake capacity and low energy penalty for ammonia release. However, the dramatic volume swing during absorption–desorption cycles, from SrCl2 to Sr(NH3)8Cl2 to SrCl2, imposes a challenge to structure SrCl2 for ammonia storage applications. Herein, a novel porous SrCl2 structure with SrCl2 loading up to 96 wt%, scaffolded by reduced graphene oxide (rGO) networks is reported. The optimized porous SrCl2‐rGO composite with 80 wt% SrCl2 loading maintains the macro‐ and micro‐structure accommodating the volume swing during ammonia absorption–desorption cycles without disintegration, whereas structured SrCl2 pellets disintegrates directly after the first cycle of NH3 absorption. The structured porous 80 wt% SrCl2‐rGO composite demonstrates rapid absorption–desorption kinetics, 140% faster in absorption and 540% faster in desorption compared with pure SrCl2 pellet. The enhancement of the surface area and the presence of SrCl2 particles in the pores of rGO networks result in a robust and stable structure offering rapid ammonia absorption–desorption kinetics while countermining the volume swing by self‐adjusting “breathing.”

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
John Wiley & Sons, 2021. Vol. 31, no 30, article id 2008505
Keywords [en]
ammonia, freeze‐casting, graphene networks, selective catalytic reduction, strontium chloride
National Category
Other Materials Engineering
Research subject
Engineering Materials
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:ltu:diva-83496DOI: 10.1002/adfm.202008505ISI: 000635149700001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85103405891OAI: oai:DiVA.org:ltu-83496DiVA, id: diva2:1542192
Funder
Swedish Research Council Formas, 2016-01099
Note

Validerad;2021;Nivå 2;2021-08-06 (beamah)

Available from: 2021-04-07 Created: 2021-04-07 Last updated: 2021-10-07Bibliographically approved
In thesis
1. Structured Ammonia Carriers for Selective Catalytic Reduction
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Structured Ammonia Carriers for Selective Catalytic Reduction
2021 (English)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

Air quality has been one of the long-term focuses in society and has raised people’s concern regarding its amelioration in the post coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic era. Nitrogen oxides (NOx), including NO and NO2, as one of the most harmful air pollutants, have been stringently monitored in most countries due to their devastating impact on the environment and human health. The transport sector, as the primary source of NOx, therefore, is regulated with ever-evolving NOx emission standards for vehicles. One typical approach to abate NOx from vehicle exhaust is using ammonia (NH3) to reduce NOx and produce environmentally friendly nitrogen (N2) and water (H2O) by selective catalytic reduction (SCR). Conventional urea-based SCR systems using urea as an indirect ammonia source have presented a series of problems, including low conversion efficiency with the lowering of exhaust temperature, freezing of urea solution in low-temperature regions, and emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) as a by-product.

Solid SCR systems have emerged as a new direction for NOx reduction (DeNOx) in both industry and research, owing to their high NOx converting efficiency at low exhaust temperatures with direct ammonia dosing. In solid SCR systems, the ammonia storage and delivery unit is a critical part influencing DeNOx performance. The most popular ammonia carriers in solid SCR systems are alkaline earth metal halides (AEMHs), such as MgCl2, CaCl2, and SrCl2. AEMHs face two main challenges as ammonia carriers: (1) low kinetics of ammonia absorption and desorption for urban driving and engine idle scenarios; (2) poor structural stability in terms of thermal melting spread due to heat accumulation and dramatic volume expansion/shrinkage during ammonia absorption-desorption cycles.

In this thesis, various physisorbents and chemisorbents, including metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), zeolites, and carbon-reinforced AEMHs, are designed, fabricated, and evaluated as optimized ammonia carriers for solid SCR systems.

MOFs [M2(adc)2(dabco)] (M = Co, Ni, Cu, Zn) in this research have demonstrated physisorption of ammonia and superior kinetics of adsorption and desorption compared to MgCl2. Among the synthesized MOFs, Ni2(adc)2(dabco) possessed the highest ammonia uptake capacity, resulting from its high specific surface area. Ni2(adc)2(dabco) released 6 times the mole fraction of ammonia in the first 10 minutes compared to Mg(NH3)6Cl2, indicating that physisorbents can offer a solution to shorten the buffer time for ammonia dosing in SCR. To combine the physisorption of microporous materials with the chemisorption of AEMHs, SrCl2-impregnated zeolite granules as well as three-dimensional (3D) printed zeolite units to carry AEMHs were designed. By optimizing the parameters in the ion exchange and impregnation process, the fabricated SrCl2-impregnated zeolite granules showed two stages of ammonia sorption, including a rapid adsorption stage from the zeolites and an abundant absorption stage from SrCl2. The SrCl2-impregnated zeolite A granules retained 73% of the compressive strength of the pristine CaA granules after ammonia cycles, indicating excellent structural stability of the composite granules. The feasibility of applying 3D printing technology to co-structure AEMHs and zeolites was examined by designing zeolite NaX units to carry MgCl2. A 3D-printed NaX scaffold was successfully fabricated with an optimal formulation of zeolite NaX ink after rheological studies.

Carbon materials were selected to form composites with AEMHs, including graphite (Gt), graphene nanoplatelets aggregates (GNA) as additives, and graphene networks as the scaffold. The pelletized carbon-MgCl2 composites containing 20 wt% Gt/GNA presented high structural integrity up to 800 °C above the melting point of MgCl2. Besides, the introduction of nanopores from GNA could promote ammonia diffusion in the MgCl2, resulting in enhanced kinetics of ammonia sorption and desorption. A porous SrCl2 structure scaffolded by graphene networks was fabricated by freeze-casting. The optimized porous SrCl2 with 80 wt% SrCl2 loading maintained its macro- and micro-structure, accommodating the volume swing after 20 ammonia sorption–desorption cycles without disintegration. Furthermore, the porous SrCl2 demonstrated superior kinetics of ammonia sorption and desorption by possessing more surface sites for ammonia adsorption and a shorter diffusion length in the SrCl2 particles. This structuring approach was verified with other AEMHs, including MgCl2 and CaCl2.The results from this thesis offer several solutions to structure AEMHs and their composites as ammonia carriers for SCR, with rapid kinetics and enhanced structural stability. Potential directions for optimizing the ammonia carriers are suggested, such as combining physisorbents (MOFs, zeolites, etc.) and chemisorbents (AEMHs) in flexible networks and optimizing the volumetric ammonia uptake capacity while maintaining the structural stability of the ammonia carriers.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Luleå: Luleå University of Technology, 2021
Series
Doctoral thesis / Luleå University of Technology 1 jan 1997 → …, ISSN 1402-1544
Keywords
ammonia, SCR, NOx, graphene network, zeolite, MOF
National Category
Materials Engineering
Research subject
Engineering Materials
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:ltu:diva-87434 (URN)978-91-7790-944-6 (ISBN)978-91-7790-945-3 (ISBN)
Public defence
2021-12-08, E632, Lulea University of Technology, Luleå, 09:00 (English)
Opponent
Supervisors
Funder
Swedish Research Council Formas, 2016-1099
Available from: 2021-10-11 Created: 2021-10-07 Last updated: 2023-02-10Bibliographically approved

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Cao, ZhejianAkhtar, Farid

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