We used the cryogenic refrigerator to reach 95K (the lower limit of its cooling capabilities), and
later on in the experiment used liquid nitrogen to reach 77K. Dr. Sullivan was curious about the difference
in speed and volume of adsorption that would arise out of crushing the zeolite (thus increasing the surface
area), so this was planned into the procedure. In the first part of the experiment, I left the pellets intact.
Nitrogen gas was released into the zeolite chamber (now cooled to 95K) in 0.02 atm increments, and I
measured the pressure in the pipe system every 15 seconds. Upon turning the cryogenic refrigerator off,
letting the zeolite sample warm to room temperature, and then re-cooling the sample to 95K, I found that
the equilibrium pressure of nitrogen in the zeolite had increased. We hypothesized that the drastic
temperature change had caused some of the zeolite's molecular cages to break, increasing the area
accessible to nitrogen molecules and thus allowing more of them to be adsorbed. This hinted at what the
results of crushing the zeolite would be and affirmed our interest in doing so.