In dieser Arbeit werden verschiedene MOF Materialien die sich für die Wasseradsorption eignen hinsichtlich Ihrer Wasseradsorptionseigenschaften untersucht. Das vielversprechendste Material wird ausgewählt und an einem Prüfstand für Lufttrocknerkartuschen untersucht. Für diese Messungen ist eine geeignete Formgebung des Pulvers von Nöten, welche eine wichtige Rolle in dieser Arbeit spielt. Das Material Cu3(BTC)2 wurde hier zu monolithischen Formkörpern verarbeitet. Eine weitere Art der Formgebung war das Pressen von Papieren sowie das direkte Kristallwachstum auf Zellulose Fasern. Desweiteren wurden die Materialien hinsichtlich der Trocknung von n-Heptan untersucht, was hier als Referenz für Dieselkraftstoffe herangezogen wurde. Die Analytik wurde mittels Karl-Fischer Titration duchgeführt. MOF Materialien wurden in beiden Fällen mit kommerziell verwendeten Zeolithen und Silikagel verglichen. / Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) were investigated for their possible use in drying of compressed air in air braking systems for commercial vehicles. Another possible application was the drying of diesel fuel. In this context, n-heptane was chosen as a reference for diesel fuel. Selected metal-organic frameworks were characterized regarding the water adsorption properties by recording water adsorption isotherms. The most promising material was further investigated on a air-drying cartridge test rig. In order to perform these tests, the powder had to be processed to monolithic structures, beads or paper sheets,i.e. a shape that is suitable for the given application. The MOF Cu3(BTC)2 was sucessfully extruded to monolithic structures, which were used in the test rig experiments. Another possibility for immobilization of Cu3(BTC)2 was the crystal growth on pulp fibers. N-heptane drying isotherms were measured on selected samples making use of Karl-Fischer coulometric titration. In both applications, MOF materials were compared with silica based desiccants.

Filmes de água cobrem a maior parte das superfícies em condições ambientes. O estudo dessas interfaces é crucial em biologia e em ciência dos materiais. No entanto, o completo entendimento da adsorção da água e de suas complexas redes de ligações de hidrogênio ainda não foi alcançado. Somente recentemente possuímos técnicas com a sensibilidade e seletividade para estudar estas superfícies até a última camada atômica. A espectroscopia por geração de soma de frequências (SFG) é uma técnica óptica não linear que fornece o espectro vibracional de moléculas em interfaces, sem contribuição do volume do material. A técnica SFG foi utilizada para estudar a estrutura interfacial das moléculas de água estrutural na face livre (010) do cristal natural gipsita (CaSO4 2H2O) e a adsorção de água na mesma à temperatura ambiente. Os espectros SFG na face livre (010), em atmosfera inerte, apresentaram um arranjo com anisotropia azimutal das moléculas de água estrutural com a presença de grupos OH ligados à superfície e grupos OH livre sem formar ligação de hidrogênio, apontando para fora da superfície. O arranjo anisotrópico das moléculas na face (010) é diferente daquele para as moléculas de água no volume do cristal. A adsorção de água foi estudada em equilíbrio com vapor de água em vários valores de umidade relativa. A água adsorvida na gipsita (010) também apresenta um arranjo anisotrópico, porém, diferentemente da água estrutural na superfície livre do cristal, esta apresenta um menor grau de ordenamento e suprime consideravelmente a presença de grupos OH livre. Os resultados experimentais são analisados em conjunto com simulações por dinâmica molecular ab initio realizadas por colaboradores. As simulações apresentaram boa concordância qualitativa e quantitativa com os resultados experimentais, permitindo fazer a atribuição dos espectros vibracionais experimentais, e fornecendo informações difíceis de se obter dos experimentos, como a distribuição orientacional das moléculas de água na interface e sua dinâmica de difusão espacial. / Water films cover most of surfaces under ambient conditions. The study of these interfaces is crucial in biology and materials science. However, a complete understanding of water adsorption and its complex hydrogen bonding networks has not yet been achieved. Only recently we have techniques with the sensitivity and selectivity to study these surfaces to the last atomic layer. Sum-frequency generation (SFG) is a non-linear optical technique that provides the vibrational spectrum of molecules at interfaces, without contribution from the bulk. This technique was used to study the interfacial structure of neat (010) face of Gypsum (CaSO4 2H2O) single crystals and water adsorption on the (010) face at room temperature. The SFG spectra for the neat Gypsum face (010), in inert atmosphere, presented azimuthally anisotropy arrangement of the structural water molecules with the presence of OH groups bound to the surface and free OH groups pointing out of the surface. The arrangement of water molecules on the face (010) is anisotropic but different from that of the water molecules in the bulk crystal. Water adsorption was studied in equilibrium with water vapor at several values of relative humidity. The adsorbed water also exhibited an anisotropic arrangement, however, unlike the structural water, it presents a lower ordering and the free OH groups are strongly suppressed. The experimental results are analyzed together with ab initio molecular dynamics simulations performed by collaborators. The simulations presented good qualitative and quantitative agreement with the experimental results, elucidating the assignment of the experimental vibrational spectra and yielding information that would be difficult to get from the experiments, such as the orientational distribution of interfacial water molecules and their spatial diffusion dynamics.

L’objectif de la thèse a été de comprendre la dynamique protonique et l'adsorption d'eau dans de nouveaux matériaux poreux identifiés expérimentalement comme des candidats prometteurs pour des applications dans le domaine de la conduction protonique et du transfert de chaleur par adsorption. Dans ce contexte, des simulations à l’échelle électronique (Théorie de la fonctionnelle de la Densité) et atomique (Monte Carlo et Dynamique Moléculaire classique) ont permis (i) d’élucider les mécanismes de conduction protonique assistées par l’eau de deux matériaux hybrides de type MOFs, MIL-163(Zr) et KAUST-7', et d'un phosphate de titane, TiIVTiIV(HPO4)4 à l’origine de leurs performances exceptionnelles et (ii) d’interpréter les comportements d’adsorption de l’eau d’une série de matériaux hybrides CUK-1(Me), MOF-801(Zr) and MIL-100(Fe) qui peuvent être modulées par la nature de leur centre métallique, la création de défauts et l’incorporation de sites de coordination insaturés. Cette connaissance fondamentale devrait permettre de voir émerger de façon plus efficace des matériaux pour les deux applications visées. / The objective of this PhD thesis was to gain insight into the proton dynamics and water adsorption mechanisms in novel porous materials that have been identified experimentally as promising candidates for low temperature proton conduction and adsorption-based heat reallocation-related applications. This was achieved by combining advanced computational tools at the electronic (Density Functional Theory) and atomic (force field_based Monte Carlo and Molecular Dynamics) levels to (i) reveal the water-assisted proton migration pathway through the pores of the hybrid metal organic frameworks MIL-163(Zr) and KAUST-7’and the inorganic phosphonate TiIVTiIV(HPO4)4 materials at the origin of their outstanding proton conduction performances and (ii) explain the water adsorption behaviors of a series of metal organic frameworks CUK-1(Me), MOF-801(Zr) and MIL-100(Fe) that can be tuned by changing the nature of the metal center, creating defects and incorporating coordinatively unsaturated sites. Such a fundamental understanding is expected to pave the way towards a more efficient development of materials for the two explored applications.

The present research work caters to two important needs of rural India: i) desalination of subsoil/coastal brackish water and ii) basic refrigeration for short term preservations of agro-produce, medicines etc. Fortunately, such places are blessed with abundant solar insolation and/or low grade thermal energy (< 100°C) is available which may be tapped for this purpose instead of relying solely on grid electricity. Both the objectives of desalination and cooling are realized by evaporating brackish water at a low pressure (~1 kPa) and thermally compressing the water vapour to a higher pressure before condensing it. Adsorption route is chosen for compression where silica gel is the adsorbent and water to be desalinated as the refrigerant. The objective of this study is to develop a laboratory prototype of a two-stage adsorption cooling cum desalination system driven by low grade heat source. The entire system is air-cooled which is necessitated by non-availability of heat exchange grade cooling water. Initially various experimental and theoretical studies are carried out for characterizing silica gel + water pair which is fundamental to the system design. RD type silica gel is used in this study due to its high uptake capabilities. The uptakes for this adsorption pair at various pressure and temperature conditions are measured using a specially designed isothermal adsorber cell connected to an evaporator. Subsequently, a modelling study of adsorption kinetics is performed for a monolayer of silica gel in order to estimate the adsorption time scale. This time scale is used as an input for the scaling analysis of columnar packed silica gel bed. The scaling analysis showed that the thermal diffusion time scale limits the adsorption process. It also showed that for a given thermal length scale, the bed has a unique vapour flow length scale beyond which the adsorption phenomenon gets limited due to pressure drop. The scaling results are validated by simulation studies. A shell-and-tube heat exchanger is chosen for the adsorber which closely mimics the columnar silica gel packing studied in scaling analysis. The heat exchanger is designed for radial entry of vapour. A modelling study is performed on ANSYS® Fluent platform for optimising the tube pitch by minimising the overall thermal capacitance of the bed. The shell diameter is determined for this tube pitch based on the vapour flow length criterion established through scaling. To experimentally study the effect of pressure drop on bed performance, the radial entry of vapour is closed for 1 bed/stage (out of the 4 beds/stage) enforcing the vapour to flow along the longer axial dimension. The system is generously instrumented for precise measurements and control over the various experimental parameters. For the functioning of the adsorber system, various vapour valves and water (heat transfer fluid) valves need to be operated in a cyclical and synchronized manner. Individual components are fitted with pressure, temperature and water flow sensors. The entire operation and data acquisition for the adsorption system has been automated using National Instruments® (NI) PXIe controller executing an in-house developed code written on NI Labview® platform. To simulate solar/waste heat input, multiple electrical heaters are used in this study and a constant temperature bath is used to simulate the cooling load at the evaporator. Prior to conducting experiments a 4-bed lumped dynamic model is developed based on the design data of the system to simulate the two-stage system performance for various input conditions. The study helped to optimise the performance of a two-stage system. The study also compares the two-stage and single-stage system performance for various ambient temperatures (25–40°C). The study revealed that for pressure lifts higher than 5 kPa a two-stage system is preferable. A detailed experimental study is conducted on the developed prototype by operating it in various conditions namely 2, 3 and 4–bed modes for single and two-stage operations; with 1.0–1.7 kPa evaporator pressures, half cycle time varying between 1200–3000s and source temperature in the range of 75–85°C. The system is operated indoors during summer conditions wherein the ambient temperature is found to be 36±1°C which is significantly higher than the design point of 25°C. This resulted in lower than expected throughput; however, the system performance variation is qualitatively similar to as predicted by the lumped model. A comparison between the experimental and simulated bed temperature revealed that the thermal wave during the switching of hot/cold water plays a significant role causing a large deviation from the simulation results. A comparative study is carried out between the beds with radial vapour flow to that with axial flow and the results validate the scaling criterion. Experimental results also depict that two-stage operation is favourable when the pressure lift required is larger than 5 kPa. Such large pressure lift is encountered when air-cooling is used in a tropical country like India.

In dieser Arbeit werden verschiedene MOF Materialien die sich für die Wasseradsorption eignen hinsichtlich Ihrer Wasseradsorptionseigenschaften untersucht. Das vielversprechendste Material wird ausgewählt und an einem Prüfstand für Lufttrocknerkartuschen untersucht. Für diese Messungen ist eine geeignete Formgebung des Pulvers von Nöten, welche eine wichtige Rolle in dieser Arbeit spielt. Das Material Cu3(BTC)2 wurde hier zu monolithischen Formkörpern verarbeitet. Eine weitere Art der Formgebung war das Pressen von Papieren sowie das direkte Kristallwachstum auf Zellulose Fasern. Desweiteren wurden die Materialien hinsichtlich der Trocknung von n-Heptan untersucht, was hier als Referenz für Dieselkraftstoffe herangezogen wurde. Die Analytik wurde mittels Karl-Fischer Titration duchgeführt. MOF Materialien wurden in beiden Fällen mit kommerziell verwendeten Zeolithen und Silikagel verglichen. / Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) were investigated for their possible use in drying of compressed air in air braking systems for commercial vehicles. Another possible application was the drying of diesel fuel. In this context, n-heptane was chosen as a reference for diesel fuel. Selected metal-organic frameworks were characterized regarding the water adsorption properties by recording water adsorption isotherms. The most promising material was further investigated on a air-drying cartridge test rig. In order to perform these tests, the powder had to be processed to monolithic structures, beads or paper sheets,i.e. a shape that is suitable for the given application. The MOF Cu3(BTC)2 was sucessfully extruded to monolithic structures, which were used in the test rig experiments. Another possibility for immobilization of Cu3(BTC)2 was the crystal growth on pulp fibers. N-heptane drying isotherms were measured on selected samples making use of Karl-Fischer coulometric titration. In both applications, MOF materials were compared with silica based desiccants.

A core level spectroscopy study of ice and water is presented in this thesis. Combining a number of experiments and spectrum calculations based on density functional theory, changes in the local valence electronic structure are shown to be sensitive to the local H-bonding configurations. Exploiting this sensitivity, we are able to approach important scientific problems for a number of aggregation states; liquid water, the water-metal interface, bulk and surface of hexagonal ice. For the H-bonded model system hexagonal ice, we have probed the occupied valence electronic structure by x-ray emission and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Stepwise inclusion of different types of interactions within density functional theory, together with a local valence electron population analysis, show that it is essential to include intermolecular charge transfer together with internal s-p rehybridizations in order to describe the changes in electronic structure seen in the experiment. The attractive electrostatic interaction between water molecules is enhanced by a decrease in Pauli repulsion. A simple electrostatic model due to charge induction from the surrounding water is unable to explain the electronic structure changes. By varying the probing depth in x-ray absorption the structure of the bulk, subsurface and surface regions is probed in a thin ice film. A pronounced continuum for fully coordinated species in the bulk is in sharp contrast to the spectrum associated with a broken symmetry at the surface. In particular molecular arrangements of water with one uncoordinated OH group have unoccupied electronic states below the conduction band that are responsible for a strong anisotropic pre-edge intensity in the x-ray absorption spectrum. The topmost layer is dominated by an almost isotropic distribution of these species, which is inconsistent with an unrelaxed surface structure. For liquid water the x-ray absorption spectrum resembles that of the ice surface, indicating a domination of species with broken hydrogen bond configurations. The sensitivity to the local hydrogen bond configuration, in particular the sensitivity to broken bonds on the donor side, allows for a detailed analysis of the liquid water spectrum. Most molecules in liquid water are found in two-hydrogen-bonded configurations with one strong donor and one strong acceptor hydrogen bond. The results, consistent with diffraction data, imply that most molecules are arranged in strongly H-bonded chains or rings embedded in a disordered cluster network. Molecular dynamics simulations are unable to describe the experimental data. The water overlayer on the close-packed platinum surface is studied using a combination of core-level spectroscopy and density functional theory. A new structure for water adsorption on close-packed transition metal surfaces is found, where a weakly corrugated non-dissociated overlayer interacts via alternating oxygen-metal and hydrogen-metal bonds. The latter results from a balance between metal-hydrogen bond formation and OH bond weakening. The ultrashort core-hole lifetime of oxygen provides a powerful probe of excited state dynamics via studies of the non-radiative or radiative decay following x-ray absorption. Electrons excited into the pre-edge state for single donor species at the ice surface remain localized long enough for early time solvation dynamics to occur and these species are suggested as strong pre-existing traps to the hydrated electron. Fully coordinated molecules in the bulk contribute to a strong conduction band with electron transfer times below 0.5 femtoseconds. Upon core-ionization, both protons are found to migrate substantial distances on a femtosecond timescale. This unusually fast proton dynamics for non-resonant excitation is captured both by theory and experiment with a measurable isotope effect.

Die bei Textilbetonen überwiegend zum Einsatz kommenden Bewehrungen aus AR-Glas weisen infolge der Glaskorrosion einen signifikanten Tragfähigkeitsverlust auf. Im Rahmen des Teilprojektes D5 des SFB 532 wurden die Faktoren, die die Dauerhaftigkeit des Werkstoffes beeinflussen, evaluiert und in einen Modellansatz umgesetzt. Anhand dieser Untersuchungen konnten Möglichkeiten zur Reduktion des langfristigen Festigkeitsverlustes aufgezeigt werden. Eine dieser Möglichkeiten ist die Polymermodifikation des Betons, die im Wesentlichen einen Einfluss auf den Wassertransport innerhalb des Betonquerschnitts hat. Im Rahmen des Teilprojektes B4 des SFB 532 wurden polymermodifizierte Betone entwickelt und hinsichtlich ihres Wasseraufnahmeverhaltens untersucht. Im Anschluss wird die Wirkungsweise polymermodifizierter Betone hinsichtlich der Einflüsse auf die Dauerhaftigkeit von TRC beschrieben.

Die bei Textilbetonen überwiegend zum Einsatz kommenden Bewehrungen aus AR-Glas weisen infolge der Glaskorrosion einen signifikanten Tragfähigkeitsverlust auf. Im Rahmen des Teilprojektes D5 des SFB 532 wurden die Faktoren, die die Dauerhaftigkeit des Werkstoffes beeinflussen, evaluiert und in einen Modellansatz umgesetzt. Anhand dieser Untersuchungen konnten Möglichkeiten zur Reduktion des langfristigen Festigkeitsverlustes aufgezeigt werden. Eine dieser Möglichkeiten ist die Polymermodifikation des Betons, die im Wesentlichen einen Einfluss auf den Wassertransport innerhalb des Betonquerschnitts hat. Im Rahmen des Teilprojektes B4 des SFB 532 wurden polymermodifizierte Betone entwickelt und hinsichtlich ihres Wasseraufnahmeverhaltens untersucht. Im Anschluss wird die Wirkungsweise polymermodifizierter Betone hinsichtlich der Einflüsse auf die Dauerhaftigkeit von TRC beschrieben.

Diese Arbeit ist eine umfassende und systematische Untersuchung der Adsorption von Wasser auf der Fe2O3(0001)-Oberfläche. Sie deckt eine Vielzahl der Probleme auf, die während des Anfangs der Wasseradsorption auf den Übergangsmetalloxidoberflächen auftreten. Dazu gehören die Stabilität der reinen Oberfläche, die Rolle der Oberflächendefekte, der Einfluss der kristallographischen und elektronischen Strukturen, die elementare Kinetik der adsorbierten Arten von Wasser auf der Oberfläche, die Eigenschaften bei niedrigem und hohem Bedeckungsgrad und die Auswirkungen der Wasserstoffbrückenbindung auf die Adsorption und das XPS-Spektrum. Niedrige und hohe Bedeckungsgrade von 0.25 bis 1 Monolage werden untersucht, um die Grundlage für die folgende Erhöhung der Wasserbedeckung, die normalerweise in Experimenten beobachtet wird, zu ermitteln. Das Einzeladsorptionsregime wurde erweitert, um eine echte Wasserdampfumgebung mittels der Gibbs-Energie zu berücksichtigen. Die Ensemblemethode wurde benutzt, um die durchschnittlichen Werte der energisch entarteten Adsorptionskonfigurationen zu interpretieren. Der Abstandsmatrixansatz wurde entwickelt, um die statistische Analyse zu ermöglichen. Die Methode reduziert mithilfe der Oberflächensymmetrie die Gesamtzahl der Adsorptionskonfigurationen, die zu berücksichtigen sind. Das XPS-Spektrum wird für verschiedene Wasserdampftemperaturen und Drücke simuliert. Es wird eine gute Übereinstimmung zwischen theoretischen und experimentellen Spektren erreicht und die geringen Unterschiede werden erklärt. Die Hauptmerkmale des XPS-Spektrums beim Anstieg von relativer Feuchtigkeit des Wasserdampfs werden beschrieben. Die Ähnlichkeiten und Unterschiede der Wasseradsorption auf Fe2O3 und Al2O3 werden betont und die wichtigsten Tendenzen werden abgeleitet. Auf Grund dieser Arbeit kann der Anfangsprozess der Fe2O3(0001)-Oberflächenbenetzung erklärt werden. / The present study is a comprehensive systematic theoretical investigation of the water adsorption on the Fe2O3(0001) surface. It covers a broad number of problems inherent to the initial stage of the water adsorption on the transition metal oxide surface: clean surface stability, the influence of surface oxygen defects, the role of the crystallographic and electronic structures on the adsorption configuration, elementary kinetics, the particular qualities of the low and high adsorption coverage regimes and the effect of the hydrogen bonding on adsorption and on the XPS spectra simulation. The low and high coverage regimes from 0.25 up to 1 monolayer water coverage were considered to form a basis for the following increase of water loading mainly observed in experiments. A single adsorption energy picture was expanded to take into account the water vapour environment through the Gibbs free energy. The statistical ensemble was employed to classify and interpret the averaged values of the adsorption configurations set rather than the ``invisible'' in experiment quantities intrinsic to the particular single adsorption configuration. In order to make the statistical analysis feasible an effective distance matrix scheme was developed. It helped to reduce the total number of structures to consider without loss of generality by virtue of the surface space symmetry. Based on the statistical contribution of each individual adsorption configuration, the O-1s XPS was simulated for the various water vapour environments. A good agreement between the simulated and experimental spectra was found. Wherever it was important, the similarities and differences between water adsorption on the Fe2O3, Al2O3 and Fe3O4 surfaces were stressed and the main tendencies were deduced. Based on the present study, the whole picture of the initial stage of the Fe2O3(0001) surface wetting process was established.