Methane adsorption on porous nano-silica in the presence of water: An experimental and ab initio study.

This study investigated the effects of silanol groups and water content on methane adsorption on hydrophilic nano-silica H-380 through experiments and ab initio calculations. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy was used to confirm the presence of silanol groups on the solid surface, and the pore size distribution between 0 and 40nm was determined using CO2 and N2 sorption experiments. Ab initio MP2 and complete basis set model (CBS-4) calculations were performed to optimize four different silica surfaces with and without silanol groups using different basis sets. The theoretical calculations and experiments indicated that the adsorption of methane slightly decreased when the water content was low. As the water content increased from 29.03wt% to 40.54wt%, the confined water molecules (water within the pores) promoted the adsorption of CH4 by forming deeper adsorption potential energy wells, thus rendering the system more stable. The experimental isotherms at 308.15-318.15K were obtained over a wide range of water contents up to 75.05wt%. The experimental data are consistent with the theoretical analysis, indicating an increase in the adsorption of CH4 as the water content increased from 39.75wt% to 50.35wt%. Additionally, the adsorption of CH4 sharply decreased when the water content was greater than 63.12wt%. This study contributes essential data on methane-confined H2O interactions on nano-silica surfaces to the scientific literature.