Purification of Lunar Cold-Trapped Volatiles - FY17

The target outcomes of the proposed work are 1) hardware that can separate lunar permanently shadowed region (PSR) volatile species, and 2) four task-specific ILs that can be used with the same mixture of gases, each IL designed to extract a different volatile species from the mixed gas. The work is innovative in that it provides a workable way to separate the PSR volatiles after collection, it produces ILs that can be used in series for obtaining certain volatile species, and it is the first way to reasonably separate extracted volatiles (step-cold trapping of volatiles will not sufficiently separate the PSR volatiles for use). Specific tasks in Year 1:1. To synthesize task-specific ILs that is efficient at removing specific volatile species, while allowing other volatile species to pass through. The following volatiles will be collected with the ILs developed: CO, H2S, NH3, SO2.2. Test each developed IL for efficiency of absorption of the specific gas for which it was developed.