A density functional study of nitrogen adsorption in single-wall carbon nanotubes

摘要

An understanding of the adsorption behaviour of nitrogen in single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) is necessary for obtaining information on its pores by nitrogen adsorption manometry. Non-local density functional theory was used to simulate nitrogen adsorption behaviour, including the adsorption isotherms, equilibrium density profiles and potential energy of the nitrogen molecules at 77 K, inside SWCNTs with diameters ranging from 0.696 to 3.001 nm. With increasing diameter, nitrogen adsorption changes from continuous filling in one dimension to a two-stage adsorption that corresponds to monolayer formation followed by multilayer condensation. The average density of the adsorbed nitrogen and the density profiles, especially in small diameter SWCNTs, were used to analyse the adsorbate phase at the saturation pressure. The results indicate that the type of pore filling depends primarily on the ratio of the SWCNT diameter to the adsorbate molecular diameter. The filling of SWCNTs is not a simple capillary condensation process, but is dominated by geometrical limitation.