Abstract
Surface modification of type RD silica gel was achieved by depositing layers of thin-film copper on the parent silica gel surfaces so as to improve their performances, circumventing the poor thermal conductivity of the adsorbent. Porous properties (surface area, pore size and volume) were determined using nitrogen adsorption/desorption isotherm measurements, which were performed on adsorbents for both parent and Cu-sputtered silica gels in liquid nitrogen at a temperature of 77.4 K. The copper sputtering experiments were conducted in a chamber of inert argon gas where the chamber was bombarded with a radio frequency (RF) of 13.56 MHz. The comparative performance of the parent and Cu-sputtered silica gels was determined via various key measurements such the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), the Horvath and Kawazoe (HK) and the hot-disc sensor methods.