The preparation of a nanoporous carbon for adsorption heat pump applications is discussed.
The adsorption heat pump is a compressor-free machine that works like an inverse Carnot cycle utilizing a low temperature energy source like the solar energy or waste heat. The performance greatly depends on the characteristic pore property of an adsorbent. We prepared the composite RF-bamboo nanoporous carbon for the adsorbent. We characterized its pore property, and also investigated its water adsorption property for adsorption heat pump applications.
The precursor of the composite RF-bamboo nanoporous carbon was prepared by combining resorcinol-formaldehyde resin (RF) and bamboo. We used the bamboo which had been crushed to fibroid by blasting treatment as a bamboo raw material. It was mousou bamboo from Tokushima, Japan. The raw material was milled smaller, and additionally some of it was treated by hydrothermal treatment. The prepared precursor was dried by freeze drying method, and then it was carbonized under an inert gas atmosphere at a high temperature. Thus we obtained RF-bamboo carbon cryogel. The weight loss behavior during carbonization of the RF-bamboo cryogel was examined using a thermobalance. The pore property of RF-bamboo carbon cryogel was evaluated by nitrogen adsorption. And the water adsorption isotherm on it was measured.
We obtained the RF-bamboo carbon cryogel, which had nanoporous with high specific surface area.