Assessment of high performance SAPO-34/S-PEEK composite coatings for adsorption heat pumps

In this work, a new composite adsorbent coating on aluminum support, based on SAPO34 zeolite filler embedded into sulfonate polyether ether ketone matrix is investigated for adsorption heat pumps (AHP) applications. Composite zeolite/polymer mixtures, with 80–95 wt% content of SAPO-34 zeolite filler have been prepared and coated on aluminum substrates. The as prepared coatings showed a pull-off adhesion strength up to 2.0 MPa, significantly higher than conventional values of composite zeolite coatings reported in the literature. Scanning electron microscopy analysis demonstrated that the coating has a homogeneous morphology with zeolite filler well interconnected in the composite coating structure. Water adsorption isobars were carried out at equilibrium in the temperature range 30–120°C. The best adsorption performances for AHPs applications were observed for the PZ-95 batch, where a maximum water uptake of ∼29.0 wt% was reached, highlighting that the polymer matrix presence does not alter the zeolite adsorption capability (31.3 wt%).