Boiling Assisted Channel Templating for Adsorbent Coatings
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Solution Overview
Problem
Adsorption systems face challenges in balancing kinetics, mass, and volume for various operational conditions, particularly in applications like direct air carbon capture, atmospheric water harvesting, and thermal energy storage, where existing methods are inefficient and wasteful, with long processing times and limited vapor transport rates.
Innovation Solution
The Boiling Assisted Channel Templating (BACT) method, which involves infiltrating a mixture of adsorbent material and liquid into a porous structure and heating it to create bubbles, forming a coating layer of adsorbent material with continuous one-dimensional vapor channels, optimizing the structure for enhanced adsorption and desorption performance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If traditional adsorption coating methods are used, then the coating can be formed on the porous structure, but the processing time is long and vapor transport rate is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The invention utilizes phase transition of liquid to vapor through boiling to rapidly remove liquid from the porous structure. By heating the liquid-infused porous structure to its boiling point, liquid rapidly converts to vapor and escapes through the pores, forming a dry coating in minutes rather than hours required by traditional drying methods.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention employs periodic heating cycles to control the boiling and drying process. Multiple heating and cooling cycles are applied sequentially to progressively remove liquid and form the desired coating structure, achieving rapid processing through repeated short-duration cycles rather than prolonged continuous drying.
2Quantity of substance
If traditional adsorption systems are designed, then they can achieve adsorption function, but the mass and volume are large
Solution Approach 1:
The invention utilizes porous structures with high surface area to volume ratio as the substrate for adsorbent coating. The porous architecture provides extensive internal surface area within a compact form factor, allowing significant adsorption capacity while maintaining small overall mass and volume of the adsorption system.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention employs a hierarchical porous structure where pores are nested within pores across multiple scales. This nested architecture maximizes the utilization of adsorbent material by creating multiple levels of surface area, enabling high adsorption capacity in a minimized mass and volume configuration.
3Quantity of substance
If dense coating is formed to improve adsorption capacity, then vapor transport channels are blocked, but if porous structure is maintained, then adsorption performance is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The invention segments the coating structure into distinct functional zones: dense adsorbent regions for high-capacity vapor uptake and interconnected porous channels for efficient vapor transport. This segmentation allows simultaneous optimization of both adsorption capacity and transport rate by providing dedicated pathways for vapor movement through the coating.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention applies different structural qualities to different regions of the coating. The outer surface and channel walls feature dense adsorbent material for high capacity, while the internal pore structure maintains openness and connectivity for rapid vapor transport. This local differentiation of structural properties optimizes both adsorption and transport functions simultaneously.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The BACT method significantly improves adsorption cooling and water adsorption properties, doubling the performance of traditional methods per unit mass of adsorbent, reducing material waste, and decreasing fabrication time, while enabling more efficient vapor transport and higher cooling power, potentially cutting the required mass and volume of adsorption systems by 50%.
Implementation Method 1
heating the liquid at a pressure and temperature to create bubbles at a surface of the porous structure, thereby evaporating the liquid to form a coating layer of adsorbent material
Implementation Method 2
heating the liquid at a pressure and temperature to create bubbles at a surface of the porous structure
Data Source
AI summary
A simplified method of making an adsorbent layer can permit design and analysis of sorption systems having improved performance can include generation of one dimensional channels.