Xenon adsorption on modified ETS-10

The interaction of xenon with silver ETS-10 is found to be unusually strong. Xenon adsorption was studied on Na-ETS-10 and its silver exchanged counterpart, Ag-ETS-10, by gas chromatography and gravimetric adsorption. High adsorption capacities were observed even at low pressure (6 wt % Xe at 0.5 Torr and 25 degrees C). High isosteric heats of adsorption for xenon on Ag-ETS-10 were observed, higher than on any other adsorbent reported to date. High selectivity of xenon over nitrogen and oxygen is also observed, especially at low xenon partial pressures. The great affinity of this adsorbent for xenon is attributed to the presence of silver nanoparticles, which grow on the surface of the molecular sieve after heat treatment of Ag exchanged material.