Application of Raman Spectroscopy for Sorption Analysis of Functionalized Porous Materials

Functionalized porous materials could play a key role in improving the efficiency of gas separation processes as required by applications such as carbon capture and storage (CCS) and across the hydrogen value chain. Due to the large number of different functionalizations, new experimental approaches are needed to determine if an adsorbent is suitable for a specific separation task. Here, it is shown for the first time that Raman spectroscopy is an efficient tool to characterize the adsorption capacity and selectivity of translucent functionalized porous materials at high pressures, whereby translucence is the precondition to study mass transport inside of a material. As a proof of function, the performance of three silica ionogels to separate an equimolar (hydrogen + carbon dioxide) gas mixture is determined by both accurate gravimetric sorption measurements and Raman spectroscopy, with the observed consistency establishing the latter as a novel measurement technique for the determination of adsorption capacity. These results encourage the use of the spectroscopic approach as a rapid screening method for translucent porous materials, particularly since only very small amounts of sample are required.