Monolayer Gas Adsorption on Graphene-Based Materials: Surface Density of Adsorption Sites and Adsorption Capacity

Abstract

Surface density of adsorption sites on an adsorbent (including affinity-based sensors) is one of the basic input parameters in modeling of process kinetics in adsorption based devices. Yet, there is no simple expression suitable for fast calculations in current multiscale models. The published experimental data are often application-specific and related to the equilibrium surface density of adsorbate molecules. Based on the known density of adsorbed gas molecules and the surface coverage, both of these in equilibrium, we obtained an equation for the surface density of adsorption sites. We applied our analysis to the case of pristine graphene and thus estimated molecular dynamics of adsorption on it. The monolayer coverage was determined for various pressures and temperatures. The results are verified by comparison with literature data. The results may be applicable to modeling of the surface density of adsorption sites for gas adsorption on other homogeneous crystallographic surfaces. In addition to it, the obtained analytical expressions are suitable for training artificial neural networks determining the surface density of adsorption sites on a graphene surface based on the known binding energy, temperature, mass of adsorbate molecules and their affinity towards graphene. The latter is of interest for multiscale modelling.