Morphological and mechanical characterisation of zeolite-based composite foams

The configuration of the adsorbent beds is very important to maximize the performances of the adsorption systems. The consolidated systems allow to improve the heat transfer, increasing the specific cooling power. Composite foams are an important alternative to traditional coating because their porous structure could promote the refrigerant vapour flow inside them. A well-structured zeolite composite foam with well interconnected zeolite grains is suitable to optimize performance under working conditions of an adsorption heat pump. In this concern, the aim of the present work is to identify the property structure relationship in zeolite-silicone composite foams obtained by "dehydrogenative coupling" foaming. The system is composed by two reagents (supplied by Gelest INC.): a "poly-methylhydrosiloxane" (HMS-082) and a "silanol terminated polydimethylsiloxane" (DMS-45) with a "bis(2-ethylhexanoate)tin, tech 95" (SNB1100) as catalyst.