Creation of a new material capable of eliminating pollutants by the hydrocarbo...( This release is available in Unive...)

This release is available in Spanish.

A research team of the University of Granada has managed to produce the most useful material to date to eliminate pollutants such as benzene, toluene and xylene, organic solvents widely used in the hydrocarbon industry and generated by road traffic in cities. The world-wide problem of the exposure to aromatic hydrocarbons has mainly focused its attention on benzene, which is considered to be harmful to health, even in low concentrations.

This material is a monolithic carbon aerogel with the advantage of not only being able to retain these pollutants: it can also be easily regenerated and can therefore be used in several cycles. This research has been carried out by David Fairn Jimnez, from the Department of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Granada, and directed by lecturers Carlos Moreno Castilla and Francisco Carrasco Marn. The aim of this study was to prepare and describe a series of new materials monolithic carbon aerogels as adsorbers of benzene, tolene and xylene (BTX).

Highly Pollutant

The study of the elimination of volatile organic compounds from anthropogenic sources road traffic in cities, solvents, industry, etc. such as BTX, is very important as these substances are highly pollutant. In order to eliminate these pollutants, it is necessary to use materials with a high concentration of micropores, which is where the absorption of pollutants takes place, but these pores must be the correct size and properly arranged. Thus, we achieve a high level of efficiency when eliminating and retrieving BTX after the saturation of the material, said David Fairn.

Furthermore, the design of the adsorbent bed must allow a sufficient contact for the elimination of co
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