Coloquio de Física - Microporous materials for environmental applications

   Departamentos        Ciencias - Sección Física

Ponente: Diana Olivas (Universita degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale, Italia) One of the most pressing environmental challenges is the development and optimization of novel adsorbents to separate organic pollutants from groundwater. Zeolites – crystalline microporous aluminosilicates – are often used as molecular sieves and adsorbents because of their peculiarly high surface area, the molecular dimensions of their pores, and their high sorption capacity. We will present a multidisciplinary study of the host-guest (adsorbent-pollutant) interactions occurring at the interface between zeolite surfaces and organic pollutants. For the adsorbents, we use two commercially available hydrophobic zeolites, chosen on the basis of their pore structure. For the pollutants, we use toluene and n-hexane, two hydrocarbons chosen to model pollutants usually found in groundwater coming from industrial waste of oil refineries and gas stations. To mimic realistic conditions, we study the adsorption of mixtures of these two pollutants.