These results have motivated the preliminary study of the suitability of TMAF as a carbon dioxide sorbent for environmental control and life support system applications described herein. A block diagram describing the experimental setup is shown in Figure 1. A compressed gas cylinder of carbon dioxide was connected to the inlet of an Isco 260D syringe pump whose outlet was fed to a Rheodyne XXXX loop injector. The flow cell was interfaced to a BioRad FTS40 FTIR spectrometer. Block diagram of the experimental apparatus used for carbon dioxide absorption experiments.
Solid lines represent steel or glass tubing connections.
Detailed illustration of the scrubber assembly depicted in Figure 1. The apparatus was then flushed with this mixture for several minutes prior to measuring an absorbance spectrum versus the nitrogen reference spectrum. For CO 2 sorption experiments, the scrubber assembly was loaded with a weighed quantity of TMAF and connected to the gas inlet and outlet tubes of the loop injector. This operation was performed quickly in order to minimize absorption of water by the hygroscopic salt. Results and Discussion Calibration of the apparatus depicted in Figure 1 above yielded the plot shown in Figure 2 below.