Design principles for synthesizing high grade activated carbons for adsorption heat pumps

This study presents a thermodynamic formulation to capture the relationship between the adsorption interaction energy and adsorbent-morphological properties, which can be further extended into surface coverage. Employing the inverse gas chromatography method, the adsorbate uptakes are measured in Henry's law region, from which the energetic behaviors of a single component adsorbate-adsorbent system are calculated in terms of enthalpy and entropy of the adsorbed phase in very low-pressure regions. A thermodynamic formulation is established between the specific entropy and Henry's law constant, including the pore volume of the adsorbents, and one can predict the isosteric heats and adsorbent's pore size for activated carbon + ethanol system by extending the proposed linear trend. These findings could significantly contribute towards tailoring the adsorbent materials for the design of an adsorption bed with a minimal or maximum driving force depending on the types of heat transformation applications.