Advanced life support for space exploration: Air revitalization using amine coated single wall carbon nanotubes

Abstract

The challenges posed by long duration human space flight have made regenerable air revitalization a critical technology. Current systems using disposable lithium hydroxide do not address the difficulties presented by long duration missions. Solid amine systems offer the capability to regeneratively adsorb CO₂ using an amine—impregnated porous substrate. Desorption of CO₂ is then achieved by exposing the system to vacuum or by increasing temperature. However, thermal inefficiencies and system size constraints prevent adoption of regenerable systems on current and future space vehicles. A key challenge is the thermal management of the adsorbing bed. The adsorbing surface increases in temperature which reduces adsorbing efficiency. The removal of CO₂ reduces temperature, which in turn produces a loss in regeneration efficiency. These thermal inefficiencies necessitate prohibitively large volumes of traditional solid-amine materials, which do not have optimized surface areas and pore distributions. Single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) may provide a means to increase surface area of the amine support and thermal efficiency. Recent work by Cinke et. al. provided a method of functionalizing SWCNTs and increasing the surface area to the order of 1500 m²/g [1]. We will report on the production of free standing, high surface area carbon nanotube structures currently being impregnated with amines. This novel SWCNT/amine approach will be compared with the current state of the art polymer structure-based system and characterized using SEM, TEM, surface area analysis through Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), and also thermogravimetric equilibrium absorption. Results of SWCNT material improvements from processing modifications will also be presented.