Kinetics and Equilibrium Isotherms of Water Vapor Adsorption/Desorption in Cement-Based Porous Materials

Flax-Glass Fiber Reinforced Hybrid Composites Exposed to a Salt-Fog/Dry Cycle: A Simplified Approach to Predict Their Performance Recovery

Despite natural fibers gaining significant attention in recent decades, their limited performance and poor durability under humid environments cannot allow them to fully replace their synthetic counterparts as reinforcement for structural composites. In such a context, this paper aims to investigate how exposure to a humid/dry cycle affects the mechanical response of epoxy laminates reinforced with flax and glass fibers. In particular, the main goal is to assess the performance evolution of a glass-flax hybridized stacking sequence in comparison with the full glass and flax fiber reinforced composites. To this end, the investigated composites were first exposed to salt-fog for 15 or 30 days and then to dry conditions (i.e., 50% R.H. and 23 °C) for up to 21 days. The presence of glass fibers in the stacking sequence significantly stabilizes the mechanical performance of composites during the humid/dry cycle. Indeed, hybridization of inner flax laminae with outer glass ones, acting as a protective shield, hinders the composite degradation due to the humid phase also promoting performance recovery during the dry phase. Hence, this work showed that a tailored hybridization of natural fibers with glass fibers represents a suitable approach to extend the service-life of natural fiber reinforced composites exposed to discontinuous humid conditions, thus allowing their employment in practical indoor and outdoor applications. Finally, a simplified theoretical pseudo-second-order model that aimed to forecast the performance recovery shown by composites was proposed and experimentally validated, highlighting good agreement with the experimental data.

Equilibrium and hysteresis formation of water vapor adsorption on microporous adsorbents: Effect of adsorbent properties and temperature

Water vapor has been one of the vital problems in purification of volatile organic compounds. In this study, the adsorption-desorption equilibrium of water vapor were conducted at 298, 308, 318, and 328 K on three adsorbents: hypercrosslinked polymeric adsorbents (HPA), activated carbon fiber (ACF) and granular activated carbon (GAC). The obtained isotherms were type V and the adsorption capacity at the same condition was: GAC>ACF>HPA. cluster formation induced micropore filling (CIMF) model was adopted to fit the adsorption isotherms and the fitting parameters showed that adsorption capacities of water vapor on micropores and functional groups had a negative logarithmic linear relationship with temperature. The existence of functional groups could weaken the negative influence of temperature on the water adsorption performance, while the influence of temperature had negligible relationship with microporous volume. The hysteresis loops at different temperatures on three adsorbents had similar shape, the size of which were also: GAC>ACF>HPA. They mainly occurred in micropore adsorption, but their size had positive relationships with both functional groups and microporous volume. The hysteresis became smaller along with the increase of temperature, closely related with the stability of water clusters. In conclusion, temperature, functional groups and porous structure played crucial roles for water vapor adsorption and the formation of hysteresis.Implications: Water vapor is one of the vital influence for VOCs recovery, so studying the adsorption mechanism of water vapor is important to weaken its negative effect. Adsorption capacities of water vapor on both micropores and functional groups had a negative logarithmic linear relationship with temperature. The existence of functional groups could weaken the negative influence of temperature on the water adsorption performance, while the influence of temperature had negligible relationship with microporous volume. The hysteresis loops on three adsorbents mainly occurred in micropore adsorption, but their size had positive relationships with both functional groups and microporous volume.

Kinetics of low radioactive wastewater imbibition and radionuclides sorption in partially saturated ternary-binder mortar

This study seeks to assess the imbibition kinetics of low radioactive wastewater (from the DayaBay nuclear power plant) into a partially saturated ternary-binder mortar, as well as the sorption kinetics of ⁶⁰Co and ¹³⁷Cs from the water. Mortar samples with the initial saturation degrees of 0, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8 and 1.0 were prepared for the wastewater treatment. Pore structure of the mortar was characterized using water vapor sorption isotherm and mercury intrusion porosimetry tests interpreted by the Guggenheim-Anderson-de Boer isothermal equilibrium, and volume- and energy-based fractal models. Results show that the mortar has consistent fractal pore structure between the models, and the liquid imbibitions follow the fractal imbibition kinetics, in which the parameters are non-linearly impacted by the initial saturation degrees. The sorption rate and retention capacity of ¹³⁷Cs are much lower than those of ⁶⁰Co, and both follow the Brouers-Sotolongo fractional kinetics. The findings uncover the complex liquid imbibition and radionuclides sorption kinetics in cement-based porous materials, and the in-situ data would contribute to the material designs and sorption controls for large scale in-situ treatments of wastewater from nuclear power plant.