Microfiber Textiles of Adsorbing Materials for Heat Transformations

Abstract

Adsorbent materials made of hybrid, inorganic/organic, microfibers can be easily produced by electrospinning. Due to the presence of a polymeric component, microfibers coatings and textiles are intended for adsorption heat transformers driven by low-temperature heat sources. In this work, two different systems, SAPO-34 and silica gel microfibers with an adsorbing particles concentration of 68 wt%, have been electrospun using polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) as polymeric carrier. The thermal stability of hybrid microfibers coatings were characterized by thermogravimetric analysis in the temperature range 25–500 °C while water sorption properties were evaluated measuring isobars at 10 mbar and 40 mbar by vacuum thermogravimetry. The mechanical properties of hybrid microfibers were measured by a specially developed micro-tensile tester. Adsorption measures demonstrated that PMMA/SAPO-34 and PMMA/silica gel microfibers maintained all water sorption characteristics of the original adsorbent materials and that PMMA did not occlude the adsorbents porosity. PMMA resulted an ideal component for its thermal stability, good affinity with the adsorbent phases and mechanical resistance. From this point of view, the addition of SAPO-34 powder has been shown to improve the tensile strength of PMMA/SAPO-34 fabrics compared to pure PMMA microfibers.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was partly funded by the research activity: "Synthesis of materials for thermochemical storage optimized for power to heat applications" under the Collaboration Agreement between DICEAM (Department of Civil, Energetic, Environmental and Materials Engineering, Mediterranean University of Reggio Calabria) and MiSE (Ministry of Economic Development) with CNR (National Research Council) who signed the 2019–2021 Program Agreement for research and development activities of general interest for the national electricity system.

Notes on contributors

Angela Malara

Angela Malara is a Researcher at the Department of Civil Engineering, Energy, Environment and Materials of the Mediterranean University of Reggio Calabria, where she teaches courses on materials science. She received the M.S. degree in Materials Engineering from the University of Messina and the Ph.D. in Electronic Engineering from the Mediterranean University. Her research activity is addressed to the development, the synthesis, and the characterization of innovative nanostructured materials for energy, catalytic, environmental and sensing applications. She is author of publications in international journals, national and international conference proceedings, and co-inventor of one patent.

Lucio Bonaccorsi

Lucio Bonaccorsi is an Associate Professor in the field of Materials Science and Technology at the DICEAM Department of the Mediterranean University. He received a Ph.D. in Chemistry of Materials for special use from the University of Messina. His research deals with the synthesis of new nano and microporous materials for low environmental impact applications. He is author of over one hundred publications in international journals, national and international conference proceedings, and book chapters in the field of Materials Science. He is co-inventor of three Italian patents and coauthor of a book.

Patrizia Frontera

Patrizia Frontera is an Associate Professor at the Department of Civil Engineering, Energy, Environment and Materials of the Mediterranean University of Reggio Calabria (Italy). She obtained her Ph.D. in Chemical and Materials Engineering from the University of Calabria. Her research interests are related to the evaluation in catalytic activity of micro-mesoporous materials, hydrogen production from hydrocarbons, exploitation of CO₂ for output of value-added products and investigations on nanostructures fabricated by electrospinning for employment in fuel cells, sensing and electrocatalysis. She is author of more than seventy papers published in international journals, one European patent and about hundred national and international conference proceedings.

Angelo Freni

Angelo Freni is a Senior Researcher at the Italian National Council of Research- Institute for the Chemistry of OrganoMetallic Compounds (CNR – ICCOM) – Pisa, Italy. He holds a Ph.D. in Materials and Chemical engineering from the University of Messina. His scientific interest concerns the field of energy technologies with special regard to thermally driven heat pumps, heat storage and hydrogen storage systems. He has coauthored more than 180 papers on international Journals and conference proceedings.

Luigi Calabrese

Luigi Calabrese is an Associate Professor in Materials Science and Technology at the University of Messina (Department of Engineering). He obtained his Ph.D. degree in Materials Chemistry and Engineering in 2002. Currently his main research topics are: innovative adsorbent and composite foams and coatings for sustainable energy technologies, science and technology of composite materials and their durability, and materials corrosion and degradation characterization and monitoring. He is author of more than 140 indexed papers.