A nanoporous material consists of either an organic and/or inorganic framework, which maintains a porous structure with a typically large surface area in excess of 400m2/g. Based on the definition by the International Union of Pure Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), porous materials may be classified according to their pore diameters, namely, micropores (greater than 2nm), mesopores (between 2nm and 50nm) and macropores (less than 50nm).
Nanostructured Materials:
Nanostructured Materials:
- Nanostructures represent the transition from atom to solid.
- It is essential to obtain particles or pores with uniform diameters and shapes and, for the purpose of particular applications, to arrange and embed them in a superstructure.
- Size quantization effects, high number of surface atoms, and special surface states.
- Special optical, electronic, magnetic, and chemical properties.
- Good applications in the areas of signal transmission, data and energy storage, catalysis, as well as biology
There are numerous applications of nanoporous materials, including gas storage, separation, and purification. In recent years, the number of available nanoporous materials has increased substantially, with new material classes, such as metal-organic frameworks and microporous organic polymers, joining the traditional adsorbents, which include activated carbons, porous silicas, and zeolites. The determination of the gas adsorption properties of these materials is critical to both the development of new materials for targeted applications and the assessment of the suitability of a material for a particular technology.
Nanoporous materials are highly versatile and can used in various industrial applications ranging from catalytic reactions, adsorption and environmental processes due to the presence of voids of controllable dimension at the atomic, molecular and nanometer scales. As such, they are of interest to both chemical and environmental engineers, and with rising environmental concerns worldwide, the use of nanoporous materials in the removal of polluting species from different media as well as the recovery of useful ones has become more significant. This paper provides a general overview of the various types of nanoporous materials and their respective applications.