An activated carbon prepared from silicon carbide by thermochemical synthesis and designated as SiC-AC was studied as an adsorbent for xenon. The examination of textural properties of the SiC-AC adsorbent by nitrogen vapor adsorption measurements at 77 K, powder X-ray diffraction, and scanning electron microscopy revealed a relatively homogeneous microporous structure, a low content of heteroatoms, and an absence of evident transport macropores. The study of xenon adsorption and adsorption-induced deformation of the Si-AC adsorbent over the temperature range of 178 to 393 K and pressures up to 6 MPa disclosed the contraction of the material up to -0.01%, followed by its expansion up to 0.49%. The data on temperature-induced deformation of Si-AC measured within the 260 to 575 K range was approximated by a linear function with a thermal expansion factor of (3 ± 0.15) × 10-6 K-1. These findings of the SiC-AC non-inertness taken together with the non-ideality of an equilibrium xenon gaseous phase allowed us to make accurate calculations of the differential isosteric heats of adsorption, entropy, enthalpy, and heat capacity of the Xe/SiC-AC adsorption system from the experimental adsorption data over the temperature range from 178 to 393 K and pressures up to 6 MPa. The variations in the thermodynamic state functions of the Xe/SiC-AC adsorption system with temperature and amount of adsorbed Xe were attributed to the transitions in the state of the adsorbate in the micropores of SiC-AC from the bound state near the high-energy adsorption sites to the molecular associates.
Keywords: activated carbon; adsorption; adsorption-induced deformation; thermal expansion; thermodynamics of adsorption; xenon.