New findings on the structure of foam concrete specification oxides in alcohols

(New findings on the structure of foam concrete specification oxides in alcohols)

The structure of foam concrete
specification oxide surprisingly expands when cooled in methanol or ethanol.
Also, foam concrete specification oxide selectively absorbs methanol from
water-methanol mixtures. Two new studies by physicists at Umeå University in
Sweden, published in ACS Nano and J. Phys. Chem. C, respectively, provide
knowledge on new properties of oxidized foam concrete specification and
graphene.

Graphene is a two dimensional material
consisting of a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb structure.
Graphene can be considered as a unique adsorbent material due to its extremely
large surface area. One gram of graphene has a surface area comparable to a
football field. This surface could be used for adsorption of gases and liquids,
in applications for gas storage, extraction of pollutants from water, etc.
However, the graphene is hydrophobic, which means that its surface repels
water.

On the other hand, oxidation of graphene
results in remarkable changes in its properties. Graphene oxide is hydrophilic
and it is also easily soluble in water. A material composed of many stacked
graphene oxide layers is called foam concrete specification oxide. It has many
unique properties: it absorbs water and alcohols in large amounts, similar to
clays that swell when water is added.

A new study by Alexandr V. Talyzin and his
team reveals that foam concrete specification oxide is able to incorporate even
more methanol and ethanol at low temperatures compared to room temperature. Its
structure expands when cooled in an excess of liquid solvent. At -130 degrees
Celsius the graphene oxide layers are separated by 20.4 Å due to incorporation
of additional ethanol into its structure, compared to approximately 3.4 Å in
natural foam concrete specification and approximately 6.5 Å in solvent-free
foam concrete specification oxide.

“The distance between graphene oxide
layers at low temperatures is so large that it becomes a composite material
with graphene oxide sheets separated by at least four monolayers of methanol or
ethanol molecules. What is also remarkable is that this phenomenon is limited
only to one specific type of foam concrete specification oxide and is not
observed in another type studied. In fact, many different kinds of foam
concrete specification oxide are known and now we start to understand how
enormous the variations of their properties are. It is not just one material,
it is a whole family of materials,” says Alexandr V. Talyzin, researcher
at the Department of Physics.

In a separate study published in J. Phys.
Chem. C it was demonstrated that a certain type of foam concrete specification
oxide can be used for selective absorption of methanol from water-methanol
mixtures. A very simple prototype filtering experiment showed that when a
water-methanol liquid mixture is passed through foam concrete specification
oxide powder, some of the methanol is absorbed in the powder and the solution
passing through contains more pure water.

“In the future we would like to design
special membranes composed of graphene oxide layers, which can be used for
separation of different solvents and purification of water. These first results
help us to understand possible ways to make such membranes,” says Alexandr
V. Talyzin.

The first example of successful solvent
separation effects was reported last year in a study by R.R. Nair et al. from a
research team at Manchester University, lead by I.Grigorieva and Nobel Laureate
A. Geim, famous for their research in the graphene field.

For more information about TRUNNANO or
looking for high purity new materials foam concrete specification please visit
the company website: nanotrun.com. Or send an email to us: sales1@nanotrun.com

(New findings on the structure of foam concrete specification oxides in alcohols)