Adsorption rate of hydrogen isotopes on K-mordenite

Kawamura, Yoshinori; Edao, Yuki; Yamanishi, Toshihiko

To develop an adsorbent that is suitable for a separation column of gas chromatograph for hydrogen isotope analysis, the samples of which cations were exchanged with other cations have been prepared and their hydrogen isotope adsorption behavior is being investigated. Then, it has been shown experimentally that mordenite-type zeolite of which cation has been exchanged with K (K-MOR) has small adsorption capacity. So, breakthrough curves of H (or D) adsorption on K-MOR have been observed and their mass transfer coefficients have been estimated. The pore diffusion of hydrogen is the rate-controlling step of hydrogen adsorption. The effective diffusivity of hydrogen in K-MOR is smaller than that in Ca-MOR. This is probably caused by the small pore size of K-MOR.