Small-Angle Scattering from Confined and Interfacial Fluids: Applications to Energy Storage and Environmental Science

This book examines the meso- and nanoscopic aspects of fluid adsorption in porous solids using a non-invasive method of small angle neutron scattering (SANS) and small angle x-ray scattering (SAXS). Starting with a brief summary of the basic assumptions and results of the theory of small-angle scattering from porous media, the author focuses on the practical aspects and methodology of the ambient and high pressure SANS and SAXS experiments and corresponding data analysis. It is illustrated with results of studies of the vapor and supercritical fluid adsorption in porous materials published during the last decade, obtained both for man-made materials (e.g. porous fractal silica, Vycor glass, activated carbon) and geological samples (e.g. sandstones, shales and coal). In order to serve the needs of broad readership, the results are presented in the relevant context (e.g. petroleum exploration, anthropogenic carbon capture and sequestration, ion adsorption in supercapacitors, hydrogen storage, etc.). Yuri B. Melnichenko was educated as a physicist in the USSR, receiving his Ph.D. from Kiev State University (1984) and later a prestigious Doctor of Physics and Mathematics degree from the Academy of Sciences of USSR (1992). He is a Humboldt Foundation Fellow (1993, Germany), and a recipient of Max Planck Society award (1994, Germany). Visiting researcher, the Max Planck Institut fr Polymerforschung, (Mainz, Germany) in 1993 – 1995. Since 1995 – a research staff member, Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He conducts research in the field of soft matter materials and confined fluids using small-angle and quasi-elastic neutron scattering techniques and is an author and co-author of more than 160 peer reviewed scientific articles. Co-Editor of a book “Computational Studies, Nanotechnology, and Solution Thermodynamics of Polymer Systems” (Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York, 2001). In 2005 elected a Fellow of American Physical Society for “Significant contribution to the fundamental science underlying universal aspects of macromolecules in polymer solutions, supercritical mixtures and polymer blends”. Most recent interests are in the area of high pressure adsorption and dynamics of fluids confined in pores of engineered and natural porous materials.