Nanoporous Materials: Science And Engineering

With increasing environmental concerns worldwide, porous materials have become more important and useful for separation of polluting species, recovery of useful species, sensors, catalysis, etc. Over the last decade, there has been a dramatic increase in synthesis, characterization and application of novel porous materials (such as MCM-41) for catalysis, separation and sensors. These new materials generally fall into the category of large microporous and mesoporous materials with pore dimensions of 1 to 50 nm. This class of porous materials is generally referred to as nanoporous materials. The design, synthesis and modification of porous materials are in a way more challenging than the synthesis of dense materials. Therefore, new strategies and techniques are constantly being developed for the synthesis and structure tailoring of nanoporous materials.This book provides a systematic review of the recent developments in nanoporous materials and an insight into the tailoring of the pore and surface structure of these materials. It covers the following topics: (1) synthesis, processing, characterization and property evaluation; (2) tailoring by physical and/or chemical treatments; (3) fundamental properties, such as liquid-solid and solid-solid phase transitions in pores, effects of confinement on gases, liquids and organic molecules, adsorption, ion exchange and sieving, molecular sieving, etc.; (4) applications, including optical-electronic devices, catalysis, waste disposal, selective separation and recovery of organic vapors, air pollution control, biological materials and implants, sensors, membranes for gas separation, desiccation, gas storage, etc.