分别以硅胶和活性炭为基质,配制了硅胶-LiCl(代号SLi40)和活性炭-LiCl(代号ALi40)两种复合吸附剂,在热重天平中测量了两者的吸附性能并进行了对比研究,分析了硅胶和活性炭基质对LiCl吸水性能的影响.实验发现,ALi40的等压线中出现了明显的吸附平台,说明无水LiCl可能首先会与水发生化学反应生成LiCl·H2O结晶水合物,而这一平台在SLi40中并不明显,表明硅胶和LiCl会发生作用使LiCl的吸水性能发生了改性.对比相同条件下的吸水量发现以憎水性的活性炭作为基质可以更好地发挥LiCl本身的吸水性能,而以硅胶作为基质会对LiCl的吸水性能起到一定的负面影响.
The development of solid sorption refrigeration and sorption thermal storage technologies largely depends on the performance of sorbents. Compared with conventional water sorbents, such as silica gel, inorganic salts, such as LiCl, show great water sorption capacity. However, LiCl, a type of hygroscopic salt, is likely to liquefy upon contact with water vapor. A possible solution to this problem is to use porous matrices that can incorporate LiCl. The large internal pore volume of the matrix can contain excess LiCl solution, whereas the large specific surface area can enhance sorption kinetics. To find a suitable host matrix for LiCl, two types of host matrices, namely, silica gel and activated carbon, were examined. The prepared silica gel-LiCl and activated carbon-LiCl composite sorbents were denoted as SLi40 and ALi40, respectively. SLi40 was prepared under ambient pressure, whereas ALi40 required preparation under vacuum conditions. The pore size distributions of the samples were measured on an ASAP2020 gas adsorption analyzer. The pore volume of SLi40 was larger than that of ALi40. A comparative study on the sorption properties of the composites was performed to assess the effect of the matrix on the water sorption properties of LiCl. The sorption properties of the two composites were tested in a closed thermogravimetric balance. Sorption platforms were observed for the activated carbon-LiCl composite under the pressures studied, indicating the occurrence of hydration reactions between anhydrous LiCl and water vapor, generating LiCl monohydrate as the reaction product. A plateau was not observed at higher pressures(i.e., 1660 Pa), indicating that LiCl·H2O was unstable at high pressures. In contrast, sorption platforms were not observed for SLi40, indicating that interactions between silica gel and LiCl may have modified the water sorption characteristic of LiCl. At a sorption temperature of 30 °C, the water uptake of ALi40 reached 0.97 g/g, which was considerably higher than that of SLi40(0.74 g/g)